Life can be a real pain in the proverbial
by ArtemisApollo97
Summary: Max used to be an alright guy- a loving brother, a great friend and treated the ladies with respect. But why did his attitude to life suddenly change? He grew rude and hateful, cold and unresponsive. Rules were meant to broken and he would break them to extremes. What had happened to him and was there anything anyone could do to get the old Max back?
1. Ambush

**This is Max's story, rewritten. Personally I prefer it than the other one as I've worked harder on it instead of making it up on the spot. Please let me know what you think!**

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It was one of those days that started off bad and could only get worse.

And the weather was _mocking_ him. How rude.

While his mood was dark and cold, the sun shone bright and warm. A proverbial storm cloud hung over his head while not a cloud broke the endless blue of the sky.

Why was in a bad mood, I hear you ask.

First of all, he had gone to bed late the night before and woken up early, never falling back asleep, so he was tired. Second, he nearly burnt the house down when heating his breakfast in the microwave oven- at that point; he hadn't had any coffee and had forgotten to remove the cutlery from the plate (this resulted in the microwave exploding). Third, all of his younger siblings (with the exception of Alvie) were especially hyperactive that morning. He still had a headache from it all.

So, he was tired and hungry with a splitting headache. Of course he wasn't going to be in a good mood.

Max decided to go and see if he could scrounge any food and coffee from his older brother, Tobias, who had moved out last month to move in with his pregnant girlfriend, Sophia. His stomach growled in agreement while his head reminded him to ask for painkillers or ambrosia.

Ten minutes later, Max was on Tobias and Sophia's block. The only problem was trying to remember which block of flats his brother and his brother's girlfriend lived in.

He decided to wander around; hoping one of them would spot him from a window and come downstairs to let him in.

He was there for five minutes, but his ADHD was making it feel like so much longer.

That was when his day got worse.

Strolling past an alley for what felt like the hundredth time, Max cast his gaze around the street.

Suddenly, someone snatched at him, a hand covering his mouth. He fought against whoever it was holding him, but they were stronger, much stronger than him.

There was a sharp thud and pain exploded in the back of his head. Whoever was holding him let him go and he fell to the ground, darkness tinging the edges of his vision.

Two sets of feet in trainers came into view. That was the last thing he saw before blacking out.

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**Sorry it's short! The first few chapters are until I can get into a… zone in writing this one. **


	2. Mysterious girl

When Max woke up, he was in a bright, clinical room, the light burning his eyes and aggravating his pounding headache. He couldn't move, he couldn't think straight and he couldn't breathe properly. There was an immense amount of pressure on his ribs.

Lifting his head, he saw a girl about his age sitting astride his chest. She was beautiful with creamy skin, high cheek bones and wide, almond shaped eyes the colour of molten lava. Her thick, glossy auburn hair fell in gorgeous tresses to her waist. She was toned and athletic, Max noticed, yet curvy in all the right places. She wore skinny jeans and a black, short-sleeved T-shirt that looked like it belonged to him. Her full lips twisted in a cruel smirk as he looked down at himself. That _was_ his shirt she was wearing.

Max noticed she held a glass in her hand. He frowned at the mysterious purple-pink liquid glowing in it.

The girl twisted icy fingers in his hair and jerked his head back. She put the glass to his lips and forced him to drink it while he was growling at her for pulling on his hair sharply. He didn't get the chance to sit it out as she threw the glass aside and covered his mouth with both hands firmly.

Her fiery eyes locked with his and she stared him out. Max had his pick of girls at school, if he chose to date them, but they nothing on this girl. Even if she was keeping him prisoner and forced him to drink some bizarre substance, Max wanted her number.

The bizarre substance was awful and as each second passed, it tasted worse.

She leaned forward, her silky hair brushing his chest and face.

"Drink it." She breathed, with her lips close to his ear. A warm tingle spread through Max at the sound of her voice- as sweet as honey, sweeter even. And British- he had a thing for British girls.

Control over his body flew out of the window and against his will, he swallowed the drink. It burned his throat and boiled in his stomach, a wave of sickness slamming into him like a full-speed Minotaur charge.

The girl sat back, resting her hands on his chest. Her skin was like ice, but Max barely noticed. Her face was an inch from his and the drink was numbing his mind, he was sure of it.

She smiled at him, a small smile full of innocence with a deeper layer of mischief. She ran her hands over his build, feelings his muscles. Her cold fingers made him inhale raggedly as they wound down his arms and squeezed his biceps.

She looked at him and smiled again. Max tried to talk, but she put her fingers to his lips, shushing him gently as a mother would shush her baby. "Go to sleep." The girl whispered softly, her smile still in place. Her short instruction had as much effect on him as the previous command. He felt drowsy and his eyelids were suddenly heavy. He tried to keep himself awake, but the girl was stroking his hair in a calming fashion and it wasn't long until he was sound asleep.

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**I forgot to put a disclaimer in the last chapter- I do not own Percy Jackson and co, but Max, the other Jackson kids and Sophia and any others that are not from the series that turn up are my OCs. Sorry again for the short chapter, I'm trying! **


	3. Questions

Max was disappointed to see that the mysterious girl wasn't sat on him when he woke up.

"Max?" He looked round and saw Sophia studying him worriedly. "Tobias, he's awake!" Max heard hurried footsteps and his brother dropped to his knees next to Sophia in seconds. Relief shone from his eyes, expression and smile.

"Are you OK? What happened? Why were you in the alley?"

"Tobias…" Sophia warned.

"Sorry, sorry." Tobias shook his head, calling himself an idiot in Ancient Greek. "We found you out cold in the alley across the street." Tobias's tone reinstated his previous questions.

Max went to tell them about the ambush, the drink and the girl, but his voice caught. He got a sudden chill all over his body, feeling as if someone had tipped ice water in his veins.

"I… can't remember." The words left his lips without his intention. Tobias and Sophia exchanged worried glances.

"Should we take him to the hospital?" He asked quietly.

"Give him some ambrosia and ring your parents. See how he feels then, but I'm not sure that there's a lot they can do about amnesia."

"But what if he has a concussion?"

"I'm sure the ambrosia will sort that out." Tobias nodded slowly. "Well, go and get some!" She hit his arm playfully, laughing. Tobias smiled, jumped up and disappeared.

"How long was I out?" Max asked groggily. Sophia shrugged, rubbing her stomach.

"We found you about two hours ago, but that's about it." She looked at him quizzically. "What were you doing in that alley?"

"I forgot where you lived." He mumbled. Sophia laughed softly as Tobias returned with ambrosia.

As he ate, he wondered at which point had he been in the white room with that girl and how long he had been 'out cold' in the alley.

The bigger questions on his mind were who had attacked him, how long had he been missing in total and what was that girl's number?

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**Sorry it's short, guys, but I spent most of yesterday working on longer chapters. Hopefully I can get those up soon. **


	4. Drink

Over the next week, Max didn't feel like himself. Even though he was sleeping and eating properly, he was snappy at everyone. He had made Lilly cry, but instead of stopping to apologize and cheer her up, he had spat the word 'brat' at her and carried on.

Sometimes, he found out with horror, that words he would never have thought to say to his family and friends forced their way out filling the air and creating tension and dislike. It was as if his body was fighting with his mind, but there was no winning for his body. Especially when he started getting into fights that he would rather have avoided at school.

"What is _wrong_ with you?" One of his classmates spat. For once, Max had something he wanted to say. He wanted to explain. But every time he tried, his voice would cut out and that icy feeling would crawl through him.

Anger and frustration built up, but instead of venting it out with training or a jog, it would continue to build up until his mind got him into a fight- verbal, physical or both.

To fight back, he isolated himself in his room, but if someone came to check on him or bring food, Max would shout at them, yelling horrible things. He was treating his own family like something on the bottom of his shoe.

He soon grew bored of his bedroom and climbed out the window, considering his mother had grounded him for his attitude. He wasn't sure where to go, but he just walked.

* * *

"Sorry I'm late."

"That's OK, angel." Tobias smiled. Sophia sat on the bar stool next to him as he ordered her an orange juice- no white wine for her, much to her annoyance. Carrying twins wasn't the easiest of jobs.

"The bloody taxi was late and then there was traffic and then the taxi driver got lost… ugh, it's been a long day." Sophia ran her hands through her hair.

"I'll pick you up next time." Tobias smiled.

"Hey, Max is over there." Sophia pointed. Tobias looked round curiously. He hadn't noticed Max's presence before. The younger brother was sat alone at a table in the semi-darkness at the back of the bar. He had his arms folded on the table with his head nestled in them.

Tobias and Sophia got up and moved to sit on the opposite side of the table to Max.

Max didn't look up until Tobias drummed his fingers on Max's head.

"Sulking?" Tobias smiled. Max blinked at them blearily, frowning slightly.

"Can you get me drink?" He asked. Irritation was clear in his voice and it made Tobias frown.

"You're underage."

"So?" Max snarled. His irritation became obvious as it strengthened in his eyes and settled on his features.

"I'm not getting you a drink. Mom'll kill me." Max scoffed.

"Now why would she kill her precious Golden Boy?" He sneered. Tobias blinked at him.

"Max-" Sophia started but Max got up and left.

"Am I the Golden Boy?" Tobias asked. Sophia looked him in the eye and was surprised at the hurt look she saw.

"Your parents don't do favourites, remember?"

"Then… why would Max say that?"

"He hasn't been himself lately, Tobias. Give him some time to cool down and ring him later." Tobias nodded.

* * *

Max waited until the bartender was gone and that no-one was watching him. He ducked behind the bar and through the door. In the hallway were boxes of chips and a few boxes of vodka.

He checked his surroundings before cracking open a box and taking a bottle. He looked at the others bottles in temptation and took two more.

Hearing approaching footsteps, Max made a dash for the back door.

Max drank half a bottle on the way home. There was enough sense in him to remember his plan- sneak in through his bedroom window, hide the bottles in his room and then go round and walk in like 'hey, what's up?'

Annabeth noticed the stench of alcohol about him immediately. He wasn't that drunk, just tipsy.

"Who gave you alcohol?" She demanded. Max shrugged. "You didn't steal it, did you?"

"Might've." He mumbled carelessly.

"Max-" She stopped herself from giving a lecture. It hadn't worked in the past, of course.

She sighed. "Why are you doing this?"

"'Cos I wanna."

"Has something happened?" _Yes_.

"No." Max growled. Annabeth frowned at his tone

"What's going on?" Percy had shown up.

"None of your business." Max slurred. Percy looked momentarily stunned and hurt before annoyance and a hint of anger bought a frown to his normally cheery expression.

Max grunted and pushed past his parents. He stomped up to his bedroom and slammed the door shut. He shoved a wide, low chest of drawers in front of the door before collapsing on his bed and finishing off his vodka from Bottle 1. He was saving the other two.

That drink was the first of many.

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**Two updates on this story tonight, so that's got to count for something. Please review! **


	5. Apperance VS reality

To everyone else, Max was obnoxious, arrogant, rude and aggressive to the guys while suggestive and sexist to the girls. To the teachers, he was spiteful and disrespectful. His school and homework hit an all-time low and he seemed intent on throwing chairs, flipping tables, damaging school property and continuously getting into fights. His friends didn't talk to him as much as they used to and they were often hanging out without him.

With his family, it was worse. He was in heavy and colourful arguments with his parents daily; he had taken a swing at Tobias; Alvie was terrified of him; Sage didn't want to be in the same room as him and the triplets huddled together whenever he passed, watching him with fearful, big eyes. Visits from his cousins were becoming increasingly rare as he and Elsie were constantly fighting; either verbally, physically or both. Alokia was quieter and more timid than usual, wary of her beloved sister and Max fighting again. Even Charlie- the happy, lovable and carefree child who hugged pretty much everyone in greeting- was becoming unsettled around Max, wondering why his cousin wasn't as fun or as nice as he used to be.

Studying himself in his reflection, Max didn't see what everyone else saw. He saw himself.

Well, kind of.

He was paler than usual, with shadows under his eyes. His hair wasn't as messy as it would normally and naturally be. He also had bruises on his shoulder from a fight at school yesterday.

But while alone, away from the others, he felt like himself again. He could think straight and say what he wanted, do what he wanted and could plan what he wanted to do and say.

He wanted to apologize. He wanted to apologize to Alvie the most, seeing as he had called him a 'dumbass' the other day. That look in Alvie's eyes would haunt him forever. A look of pure devastation, betrayal, a loss of trust…

Max scanned his eyes over his reflection again, wiping away the condensation on the mirror. The bathroom was still warm from his shower. He had gotten out ten minutes ago, enjoying the feeling of being in control.

But he knew that the second he stepped outside, that control would wash away and he would be somebody's puppet once again.

Max hated himself for causing everyone he cared about some level of pain. He had tried everything he could think in the past six months to apologize- letter, email, text, phone call or even just simply talking to them. He had even tried the Morse code alphabet Leo had taught them all to try and apologize to Leo but he ended up tapping something incredibly rude and offensive out about Leo's mom. Max hadn't seen Leo angry before and he never wanted to see it again. It did make a change to see Louisa calming Leo down though. Whatever he tried, it never worked. Whatever was controlling him made him scribble over and rip up every letter he attempted to start; he had broken his laptop (which Leo was refusing to fix) while his phone been 'accidently' dropped in the bath. Whenever he tried to talk to his parents, he would say the wrong thing and cause an argument if he fought for control to get their attention. That had only happened once. The self-control he once owned was getting harder to fight for.

That was why he liked to get drunk. It annoyed and upset his parents to no end, but he liked to drink because it dulled his mind and if he did anything wrong it was easily blamed on the drink. He had stashes of alcohol in his room, his locker and his school/sport bags. If he needed more, he'd got to a local mini-mart and steal. Being drunk gave him an essence of control, something he had once taken for granted but now craved so badly.

A knock on the door pulled him from his thoughts.

"Max, are you OK?" His mother called. Max noticed genuine worry in her voice, knowing he had caused that.

"I'm fine." He replied shortly, his annoyed tone betraying his own concern for his mother.

"Oh. OK." Her tone was monotonous. Max heard her retreating footsteps, aware that he had her feelings.

There wasn't much he could do about it…


	6. Bag

**I'm mainly working on this one as I have chapters already pre-written. I am doing my best to work on others as well in my free time, but it is slow work…**

* * *

Max was quite happy at this house party. It was his entire grade in the richest kid's mansion home.

By happy, he was drunk and still drinking (probably the drunkest person there) and he was surrounded by a gaggle of drunken girls who were looking for his attention, having forgotten his new attitude and behaviour.

Flirting with them and squeezing their bums, Max didn't know that these girls would be the start of countless one-night stands.

When sober and alone, Max thought about the girls he had hurt. For obvious reasons, he wanted to apologize, but he had the same issue he was facing when it came to apologizing to his family. Leo still didn't want to know.

His thoughts yet again rambled to the mysterious girl. Subconsciously, he was sleeping around for attention from someone, but he only girl he wanted was the one that had forced him to drink something and ruin his life. Because of her, his whole life had changed for the worse and at the rate he was going, things were going to deteriorate further.

And they did. **(As they obviously would in my stories- I'm just getting warmed up… *evil laugh*)**

Kane Levitt swaggered up to Max with his posse in tow. Kane had dark blonde hair shaved in military style and pale blue eyes, wearing baggy jeans, a baggy T-shirt and a cap on backwards. His friends were dressed similarly.

"Jackson, my man."

"What's up, Levitt?"

"Me and the guys wanna know if you wanna join the group." Max cast his eyes round at them. There were seven of them, including Kane.

Max shrugged.

"OK."

"Attaboy, Jackson." Kane smirked at his friends. "One thing though, man. You gotta get me and the boys some money. Do a good job and get us enough, we'll let you in. Get caught…" Kane shrugged. "Your funeral."

"You want me to rob a bank or something?" Kane snickered, sticking a possessive arm around Max's shoulders.

"No. You're gonna start small and get the posh bitch's bag."

"Posh bitch?" Kane pointed.

"Samantha Dinglewood. Get the bag. We take the money and flog what we can."

"And I thought you had a challenge for me."

Samantha Dinglewood was one of the richest kids in the school and definitely the snootiest. She looked down her nose at everyone and spoke in a formal, patronizing way that got on Max's nerves big time. She was blonde with dictating brown eyes and pale skin. She always had the latest gadgets and designer clothes, being dropped off and collected from school by a personal chauffeur in a Camaro. Nobody understood why she didn't go to a private school, but nobody bothered to ask.

Max studied Samantha for a few seconds. She turned and met his gaze, surprised to see him looking at her.

"Ooh, she's spotted you, Jackson." One of Kane's friends sniggered.

"Gonna use your 'lady magic'?" Kane asked, marking air quotations. He and his friends cracked up laughing.

"Why not?" Max countered, smirking at their surprised looks. Max got up and casually strolled over to Samantha. "Hey gorgeous." He grinned easily, putting an arm around her shoulders.

"Get off me, Jackson." She ordered, her voice sharp and clear.

"Aw, I saw you staring. You wanted me to come over." In his normal mind, Max wouldn't go near her with a ten foot barge pole, but hey. In his normal mind, he wouldn't have done anything he had done in the last eight months, especially sleeping with most of the girls in his grade, but the 'puppet drink' as he had called it and the fact that his last girlfriend had cheated on him with his now ex-best friend forced a different approach to girls.

"You were staring at me." She protested.

"You liked it." He smirked. Her cheeks faded pink as she shoved him away. Max went after her casually, aware that many girls in the corridor were glaring at him, holding back tears or looking at Samantha in pity (for the first time). He grabbed Samantha's wrist and pulled her to him.

It was easy getting her bag. She didn't even notice. She had dropped it- the idiot- as Max flirted with her in low tones, running his hands through her hair and along her arms. Max nudged her bag back with his foot, giving it a kick. He heard a triumphant 'woo!' from Kane or someone and knew they had the bag.

Smirking, Max spun Samantha around and was gone, just like that.

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**Ok, this one is mainly a filler chapter, I'm working on others. Like meaner ones…**


	7. Scarlet lines

**There may be some content some may find unsettling nearer the end of the chapter. I apologize now for any discomfort caused- it was not intentional (for once).**

* * *

Supported between two policemen, Max waited for his parents to answer the door. He hoped it would be his father who opened the door as Percy was less likely to shout.

It wasn't Percy, it was Annabeth. Of course it was. Percy was probably dealing with the other kids.

"Mrs Jackson?" One officer asked.

"Yes." Annabeth sighed. "What's he done?"

"He thought it would be a good idea to hijack a police car and drive around while three times over the limit." Annabeth noticed the faint smell of alcohol about her son, sighing again. "He was in a cell last night, but he's underage. There isn't a lot we can do." **(I'm not sure what American policing laws are like so just go with it).**

"I am so sorry, officers. We'll talk to him."

"He needs more than a talking to, ma'am." The other officer said. Annabeth frowned. "I know it is not my place, I apologize. But looking back at similar cases, a firm hand in early days like this can stop issues now."

"Alright, I- I'll talk to my husband and see what we can do." Annabeth moved forward, placing her son's arm around her shoulders. He was barely supporting himself. "Thank you, officers." They touched their hats at her and wished her good night before taking their leave.

Annabeth literally dropped Max onto the couch. He barely noticed, closing his eyes.

Percy walked in from putting Sage to bed. She had had a nightmare about giant spiders eating her building designs and then her. She had insisted that Percy checked every inch of her room before relaxing and settling down to sleep again.

He saw Max passed out on the sofa before looking at Annabeth quizzically. Annabeth took him into the kitchen and explained.

Nearly in tears, she asked: "What are we going to do, Percy?"

"Um… send him to Camp?" Percy shrugged. "Chiron might know what to do."

"So no more cutting my allowance or grounding me or attempts to lock me in my room with bars on my window?" Percy and Annabeth looked round to see a blearily eyed Max leaning heavily on the door frame. "That's nice."

"Why are you doing this, Max?" Annabeth asked. He just shrugged, pulling a face to show his lack of caring. "Are we doing something wrong?" She gestured at herself and her husband. Max studied them for a few seconds. Percy frowned, getting a chill down his spine that stung his previous mortal point. He hated that feeling- his version of his twin's fiery skin in form of an early warning system. Looking in Max's eyes, Percy saw some form of internal battle raging.

Eventually, Max shook his head. Annabeth didn't seem happy with the response. "You hesitated." She stated. "Max, please tell us what's going on. We want to help." Max scowled.

"Help how?" He challenged angrily.

"Well… talk to us."

"I-" Max started, but he stopped talking in an instant. His hands went to his throat and his scowl deepened.

"Max?" Percy asked. "What's the matter?" Max just shook his head and left. Percy glanced at his wife, noticing tears starting to fall. He took her hand and squeezed it reassuringly before hurrying after his son.

Max had locked himself in the bathroom. Percy heard the bath running and decided against kicking the door down. "Max?" Percy called. He heard Max sigh. "You know you can talk to me, bud."

"It's not that easy." Max grumbled. He wasn't sure if his dad had heard, but apparently so.

"Look, when it is easy or easier for you, come find me and we'll talk, OK?" Max wanted to agree but his voice had shut off again. "Max?" Max still couldn't talk. Eventually, Percy sighed and left him to have his bath.

Sitting in the hot bath and trying to relax as to not aggravate the last ebbs of his hangover, Max sighed.

He couldn't go on like this. He was hurting so many people, his parents especially. Kane and his gang were horrible. They and the 'puppet drink' were making him steal cars, wallets and purses; break into shops and steal alcohol which that would drink on the corners of streets. Max always had more to drink than the rest of them, which they quickly took advantage of, making him do more and more outrageous crimes while he was wasted.

That girl had to be working for someone, he decided. It wasn't as if he had known her (although he would like to), so it wasn't as if she had some vendetta against him. Was it Luke? That slimy git always came crawling back. Harvey and Jim were the same, although Jim was around a lot less than the other two.

Was it a god? Somebody who wanted to tear the Jacksons apart?

Max couldn't decide, looking at the blotchy patterns of varying shades of blue on the tiles on the walls around bath. The steam made them shimmer. His eyes scanned around the bathroom, taking in every detail as if storing it to memory.

His eyes lingered on something. Sitting up, he stared at it.

A chill ran down his neck, over his shoulder and down his right arm, but he wasn't sure if reaching up to get it was involuntary or voluntary.

Max sat back, studying the razor. It was probably Percy's, but Max didn't care at that moment, studying the blade.

It stung like Hades, the first line, but it bought an odd sense of relief. Max stared at the scarlet line, watching as a wobbly scarlet line traced down his forearm, drips falling into the warm water of the bath from his elbow. He was glad that the water didn't heal him unless his father or aunt was around.

Moments later, there were four more lines, all neat and identical. Max hastily washed the razor and put it back where he had found it. Getting out of the bath, he pulled open the medicine cabinet above the sink. He dried his arm with toilet paper before securing a bandage around it. That was going to be a bit obvious, he realised. If his parents saw that while on the way to his room, they would freak.

He pulled on his pyjamas- cotton, drawstring trousers and an old T-shirt. He folded his jeans and slung them over his arm, covering the bandage. He made sure there weren't any traces of blood on the razor, in the bath or anywhere else, having flushed the soaked and bloody tissues.

Carefully and as quietly as possible, he pulled back the bolt on the door and snuck out. Glancing over the wooden banister on the each of the landing, he saw his parents cuddled up on the sofa. Percy seemed to be comforting Annabeth, his back to Max.

Knowing he had caused their upset, Max silently edged along the landing, skipping the creaky floorboard. He ventured further into the house, past the staircase, so that he couldn't see his parents. His room- Tobias's old room- was right at the end of the hallway.

He was nearly there when he heard something. Back tracking, he saw that Alvie's bedroom door was open slightly. From inside, a light glowed. Alvie was probably reading again.

Max reached his room without a problem. He dropped his jeans on the floor and collapsed on the bed. He studied the bandage, seeing five blood patches slowly creeping towards each other. He knew he hadn't cut a vein or an artery as the pain hadn't been like that and he would have blood flying everywhere.

His heart sunk and his eyes burnt, realisation at what he had done dawning on him. Is this what his life had become now? Was he really a binge-drinking, aggressive self-harmer?


	8. Nurse's office

"Max, it's boiling. Why are you wearing long sleeves?" Max didn't respond to one of his classmates, staring out of the window. It was a scorching hot day, the windows were open and there were two or three fans in every class. Max didn't mind the long sleeves, seeing as they hid the bandages. Yes, bandages. Over the past few weeks, his left arm had become scarlet with slashes and his right arm was slowly starting to look similar. If the wounds healed, he would just slice them open again.

"Max?" Somebody else said. A cool breeze whistled through the window and an automatic content sigh went up from the class.

"Just leave him." Someone else muttered. No-one bothered him again for the rest of the lesson.

Another breeze entered through the window, ruffling Max's hair. He frowned, noticing the sea scent. No-one else seemed to notice, happy with the coolness.

The bell rang for recess and the class emptied quickly. Max was called back. He stood in front of the teacher's desk, staring at the teacher blankly.

"Is everything alright?" Max just blinked at him. "It's not the coolest of days, Max." The teacher nodded at the long sleeved T-shirt. "Are you ill?"

Ill. That was a good term. Mentally ill, yeah, that he was. Any other form of 'ill'… not so much.

Max shook his head and left, ignoring the teacher's calls. The corridors were empty, which suited him fine. He wound through the halls, looking for somewhere isolated. He found an open window with a tall tree next to it. He checked the halls before climbing out and clambering up the thick branches. He settled on one about twenty feet up, concealing himself behind branches and bunches of leaves before reaching into his bag and pulling free a bottle of vodka. It wasn't as strong as his normal one, seeing as he hadn't been able to get his hands on that, but it was still good enough.

Easing the lid off, Max took a swig and looked down at the kids running about, throwing water over each other. A teacher stalked over and started shouting at them, her words indistinguishable from up here. He heard footsteps in the corridor and kept still. The footsteps faded away eventually, leaving Max in peace.

At some point before the bell rang for lesson, Max studied his bottle, noticing he had drunk at least three quarters of it. Feeling tipsy with his head spinning, he decided to get down. Concealing the bottle in his bag, Max slowly started to climb down.

"Max, what are you doing?" He nearly slipped, but managed to cling onto the branch. He looked round, frowning. His English teacher was staring at him, horrified, through the window. "Max, come here." She said softly.

"I was." He grumbled.

He made it through the window, swaying.

"Are… you drunk?"

"No." He lied. It was probably obvious but right then, he didn't care. She put a hand on his elbow to steady him, but he jerked his arm away and staggered away.

"Max!" He broke into a run, out-distancing her easily.

Hearing voices and footsteps approaching, Max stumbled to the nearest door.

It was fitting to find himself in the nurse's office. Thankfully, she was still on lunch break.

Max looked around the room, noticing the stock cupboard where the nurse kept painkillers, asthma medication, antihistamines and general medication, like ADHD or diabetes medication and the likes.

A wild thought entered his mind and he found himself pulling up a chair under the door handle, blocking the door from opening. Rummaging through the medication cupboard, he found an unopened box of painkillers. Moving to the desk, he yanked the drawers open, throwing things out and slamming the drawers shut when he couldn't find what he wanted.

A minute later, he was sat by the window with scissors in his right, the painkillers in his left and the vodka bottle in his lap. He hastily pulled back his sleeves and tore away the bandages, opening the lines again with the scissors.

Blood was dripping from his arms and onto the floor and his jeans. With shaking hands, he emptied a packet of painkillers into his hand and downed them with the last of the vodka.

He wasn't sure how long he sat there, the merry chatter of people wandering about outside leaking through the door. He heard a burst of laughter and closed his eyes.

Feeling unconsciousness tugging at his mind, he willingly gave in.

* * *

**Mmmm… now who did I say to blame if I was mean?**

**No, I'm just kidding (kind of). Admittedly, I've had this planned for a few days, so… meh. Review and I MIGHT be nice! (Eventually)…**


	9. Elsie

Annabeth didn't expect to get a frantic call from her husband shortly after her lunch break.

"Percy, I'm working. What's the matter?"

"It's Max."

"What's he done?"

"They found him unconscious in the nurse's office. He-" Percy cut off and Annabeth could see him checking on the triplets. When he next talked, he was quiet. "He took an overdose and downed a bottle of vodka with it."

"What?!" Annabeth exclaimed, feeling her heartbeat increase in panic. She got strange looks from her colleagues, but she didn't pay attention to them.

"And he had, um… cut his wrists. A lot." Percy finished quietly. Annabeth felt tears welling.

"I'm on my way home."

Her boss wasn't happy when she requested to go home, but finding out what had happened, he quickly changed his tune.

* * *

Max opened his eyes groggily, squinting against the light.

"Max?" A faint voice breathed. He closed his eyes, unconsciousness threatening to consume him again. "Max?" The voice called again, more urgent. He forced his eyes open, frowning against the light and struggling to stay awake with the temptation of sleeping.

His vision was blurry. He could make out two figures, one behind the other. The one closer to him had blonde hair. "Max?" He felt a gentle hand on his cheek. "Say something, sweetie."

"Ugh…" Max groaned, closing his eyes again. Somebody took his hand. He felt their fingers trace along the inside of his forearm. He opened his eyes and glanced down, seeing his lower arms encased in white cloth with blotches of red.

Percy stood up and slipped Max a canteen of nectar. Max refused it. He couldn't see them properly, but he was sure their worry increased.

"Why not?" His mother's voice sounded clearer and sharper. He winced and turned his head away. He felt his mother's hand close gently around his wrist. "Is it because of these?" Max didn't offer any answers.

Max saw his father's blurry shape move and he heard the door open. Percy's low tones reached him, followed by someone else's. Percy moved back to Annabeth's side and said something quietly to her.

"Wh-?" Max tried. "Mom…" His voice was hoarse and barely above a whisper. Annabeth ran a hand through his hair and kissed his forehead motherly.

"We'll be back in a minute, sweetie."

"Mom… Dad…" They left, Annabeth glancing over her shoulder at him before they disappeared from his line of vision.

Somebody else walked in. Max wasn't sure who it was until they stopped at his side. Long raven hair tied in a braid that hung over her shoulder. Her deep brown eyes studied him with a burning fire, but her expression was worried, as to what Max could make out.

"You're an idiot." Elsie said, folding her arms. Max just stared at her. "What is going on with you? One minute, you're tearing things about and the next you're doing this." She gestured at him. Max looked her up and down tiredly before looking away. He got sight of a white shape in the window, feeling as if it were watching him. He blinked and it was gone.

He tried to sit up, but Elsie pushed on his shoulders. Trying to frame words, he pointed feebly at the window. Elsie looked, but saw nothing. "Max, you're hallucinating." Max thought that as well when she said it, but his gut feeling told him otherwise. Shaking his head and pointing insistently at the window, Max stared at her, forcing himself to find her eyes through the foggy haze clouding his vision.

Elsie went and checked the window. She couldn't open it, but she couldn't see anything anyway, doing her best to check in all directions.

She turned back to Max, leaning on the windowsill. "Nothing." She shrugged, running a hand over her hair. "Why'd you do it?"

"Why'd you care?" His water jug on the bedside table started to rattle as the water churned angrily in it. He had sparked Elsie's temper which probably wasn't the best of ideas considering he was bed bound and could barely see.

"You may have been a serious pain in the ass, but you're still my cousin. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't be in the same room as you. But you having pulled a stunt like this reminds me of something Nico is always telling me- don't hold grudges."

"So?" Water splashed him in the face and he could suddenly see clearly. Elsie was glaring at him, her fists clenched at her sides.

"I may hate you for what you're doing to this family, but I wouldn't want you dead. Especially like this." Her eyes flickered to the blood stained bandages around his wrists before locking with his. "Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why everything?" Max sighed.

_Well, Elsie, I was kidnapped. I woke up in this room with a really hot girl sitting on me and she made me drink this thing I've called the 'puppet drink'. Ever since then, I've been doing stuff I don't want to. I've hurt so many people that I can't take it anymore. The cuts- that's been going on for ages- something I could control. Suicide- that was me as well. But still, there was someone too nice to let me die in front of them so now I'm here thinking about what I want to say to when in reality and under this thing's control, I'm most likely going to say_-

"Fuck off, Elsie." The jug exploded and water shot everywhere. Her eyes were overcome with a blazing fire and she drew a knife from her sleeve. "Go ahead. You'll be doing me a favour anyway." Her anger was bursting at the seams, but his last sentence had her hesitating.

The door opened.

"Elsie. Out. Now." Louisa glanced cautiously at Max who held her gaze blankly. Elsie tucked her knife away and stomped out, blatantly ignoring her cousin.

Annabeth and Percy walked back in. They asked him the same questions as Elsie, but he didn't give any response, eventually giving into the pressure and temptation of unconsciousness.

* * *

**Sorry it's kind of drabbley. I'm working up to the ideas I've got planned but I don't want it going too fast. **


	10. Out

Ten days later, Max was discharged. He had heard talk of prescribing anti-depressants for him, but it was argued that he could use them for an overdose, the protesting doctor reminding his opposing doctor that Max had been on suicide watch. Instead, he was given a strict guideline and advice that he _had_ to follow. His parents placed a lock on the medicine cabinet in the bathroom and discarded of any alcoholic beverages that they found. They did a thorough search of his room, finding a box of various alcohol and two normal knives along with three demigod knives. They took it all away, replacing the bars on the window and a lock on the door.

Max was sitting on his bed, staring at his mother. She was standing in the doorway, her hand on the door handle with the key in the lock.

"I'm sorry, Max, but we don't want you doing this." Max just stared at her, not giving a tell-tale of a response. Annabeth gave a miserable frown before leaving and locking the door. "This isn't right, Percy." He heard her say outside.

"We've got to help him somehow." Percy assured, but he didn't sound thrilled with the whole thing either.

Max collapsed on his bed, staring at the ceiling. He was back in comfortable short-sleeves as they all knew now. His family anyway- he doubted anyone at school would know other than the staff.

Lifting his arms above his head, Max studied the healing slashes. They were pretty much scars now, some with scabs over them.

Some part of his mind- his control- flipped on and he started picking at the scabs, blood pouring anew down his arms. It gave a minor sense of relief, but he wanted his knives back.

* * *

At some point, he woke up to the key in the lock. He sat up groggily, his arms and T-shirt stained with dried blood. He quickly darted under the blankets.

It was his mother, placing a tray of food on the floor. She glanced at him worriedly.

"How are you feeling?" She asked softly. Max didn't respond. "We're here if you need to talk, Max." She waited for a few seconds, but he just stared at her monotonously. "Eat up." She mumbled sadly, leaving. She locked the door. Max waited until her footsteps had disappeared downstairs before jumping up.

He had chicken soup and buttered bread, plastic crockery and no cutlery. A plastic beaker and a plastic jug provided water.

Max dropped to his knees, cursing. Running a hand down his injured forearm, Max sighed. Of course there wouldn't be any cutlery. He wasn't trusted with knives.

He leant against the wall, picking up a slice of bread, tearing it in chunks and dipping it in the soup. It wasn't until then did he realise how hungry he was.

The food didn't last long. He was left with a pitcher of water and plastic crockery.

Max looked at the tray. It was plastic as well, but studying the edges, he saw it was worn.

Tipping everything off, Max slid the tray under his covers. He could think about that later. Instead, he decided to get his mother's attention, throwing things full pelt at the door.

Going against his plan, it was Sage that walked in. Momentarily stunned, Max froze, holding the bowl ready to throw.

Sage looked around the room, noticing the water spreading across the carpet, the plate on the floor with bread crumbs around it. There were a few of Max's things lying around the door.

"Mom says the longer you throw things, the longer you're going to stay in here." Sage said simply. Max angered.

"I don't give a shit." Sage frowned at his language, bunching her fists. In moments like this, her inner Annabeth came out.

"Big tough Max can't show that he's hurting. Pathetic." She spat, turned swiftly on her heel and stormed out, slamming the door behind her.

Max was stunned again. He had just got told by his eight year old sister. Kind of.

* * *

The tray had ended up being useless seeing as his mother had noticed its absence, searching his room until she found it. She was careful never to bring the tray back when delivering food and drink.

After five days in his room, with only soup, buttered bread and water three times a day to keep him going, Max felt like he was going stir-crazy.

The door opened, delivering his lunch. Still no cutlery.

Max stared at the food from where he lay on his side on his bed, propped up on his elbow.

No.

Annabeth left again, locking the door quickly afterwards.

Max simply rolled over and ignored his growling stomach and the tantalizing smell of rich, homemade soup.

Shoving all thoughts of food aside, Max forced himself up. He kicked the tray over, spilling soup and water everywhere. He threw the lot against the door before turning to his room.

"Mom, Max is doing something." Alvie had been wandering past Max's room from the bathroom, a loud thud catching his attention.

"I thought he was…" Annabeth ruffled Alvie's hair before running upstairs.

Opening the door to Max's room, she stifled a gasp of shock and horror.

It was as if a tornado had swept through it. His bed had been flipped over, mattress and bedding spilling onto the floor. The chest of drawers had been lobbed onto its front while the wardrobe teetered on top of it, the wood of the chest of drawers cracked and straining under its weight. Furniture and belongings had been thrown around.

Annabeth stepped forward and felt something cold soaking her socks. Looking down, she saw the puddle of water and soup merging and staining the carpet.

"Max?" She spotted him by the window, trying to pull the bars away. "Max!"

"Leave me alone." He growled. Annabeth hurried to step over everything. By the time she had reached Max, he had given up, resting his head against the bars.

"Max, why all of this?" He didn't respond, glaring at the floor.

"Wow…" Annabeth glanced round and saw Percy looking around the room, amazed and worried at the same time. Annabeth waved him over and he hurried to obey.

Percy put his hand on Max's shoulder, but the teen jerked away, glowering at them. "Come on, bud, we're trying to help."

"I don't need help." Max snarled.

"Clearly." Percy sighed, spreading his arms to point out Max's room. Max continued to glower. "Why can't you just tell us?"

"Why can't you just leave me alone?!"

"'Cos we're your parents. We don't just leave you to struggle." Max gave a dry, sarcastic laugh.

"Fuck you." He pushed off the wall with all the strength he could muster, ducked Percy's attempt to grab him before clambering over everything and running out of the open door. He heard his father cursing behind him and Annabeth shouting for somebody to stop him.

Alvie jumped up to help, trying to block the bottom of the stairs. "Get outta the way, dumbass." Max harshly shoved Alvie away. Alvie lost his balance off the bottom step and fell. Max stepped over him, kicking him on the way.

Max was out of the door, his younger brother being helped to his feet by Percy and checked over by Annabeth.

Max was out and he sure as hell wasn't going back.


	11. Found him

Max had been missing for three weeks. His parents lost sleep with worry, spending as much time as possible looking for him. Louisa was on the job, being the best tracker in the family, but if she hadn't found him yet, will they ever find him?

The police had been called in three days after he had disappeared. They were looking for him as well. It was Nico that helped the most to keep them going, confirming Max was still alive. That and where Max was hiding was all Annabeth needed to know.

Leo, Sophia, Tobias and Vicky were babysitting again while Percy and Annabeth drove around on the hunt for Max. They had their friends helping in the search- Jason, Piper, Hazel, Frank, Nico, Nyssa, Clarisse, the Stoll brothers and Katie Gardiner.

Percy's phone buzzed in his pocket and he snatched it out quickly, passing it to Annabeth.

"What's up, Lou?" She asked.

"Some shop's got alarms blarin' 'n' the fat shop keeper is shoutin' 'bout some rat stealin' a load of alcohol. I'm followin' the rat."

"Where are you?"

"Look at ya window." Annabeth did. "Now look up." Annabeth spotted her sister-in-law running across the rooftops. "He's gone down an alley."

"Definitely a he, yeah?"

"Yeah." Louisa confirmed. She jumped down onto a fire escape as Percy pulled over. He and Annabeth got out of the car, Percy locking it (obviously- he loved his car- not as much as his kids, but still…)

Louisa was searching the alley, shining a flash light around.

"It's a dead end alley, so he has to be here somewhere." Annabeth mumbled.

A cat screeched and darted from the shadows. Louisa shone her light at it, not seeing anything.

There was a scrap of metal followed by a muffled splash. Louisa cursed.

"Sewers." She grumbled. "Always the bloody sewers." She didn't protest further, moving forward and dropping down through the open manhole.

"Ew…" Annabeth cringed, but followed Louisa, using the ladder. Percy checked the alley quickly before following.

Louisa shone her flash-light and it caught something on the wall. She muttered another curse, gingerly placing her fingers against the streaks.

"That's blood. Fresh. Whoever it is, he's hurt." They heard more splashes and broke into a run, rounding the corner. "'N' flippin' good at hidin'."

"Is anyone here?" Annabeth called.

"Yeah, 'cos people hidin' are gonna be like 'I'm here- want a sandwich?"

"Lou, shut up." Percy growled.

"You really need sleep." Louisa replied casually, turning back to the search.

A flicker of movement caught her eye. In seconds, she had her bow materialising, the flash-light sinking under the ankle-deep sewage water they waded in. She loaded and fired. There was a sharp snap and a whoosh. A startled yell followed by a loud splash.

Louisa reached the figure first, drawing a spare flashlight. "Hey, look." Annabeth and Percy stopped either side of her.

Max was struggling against wire bonds wrapped around his legs. His hair was shaggier; he was underfed and covered in bruises and grime as well as wearing tattered clothing.

Annabeth disregarded the sewage water and dropped to her knees. Max didn't register her, still trying to escape.

"Max?" He flinched as she reached out to put a hand on his shoulder and she froze. "Come home." She pleaded.

Percy stooped and picked up one of the four alcohol bottles Max had dropped. Seriously strong vodka.

"No." Max growled, drawing a knife. Percy instinctively pulled Annabeth away with his free hand, but Max was attempting to cut himself free. It was then that they saw the fresh bloody lines on his wrists. There seemed more of them than the first time they had seen them and blood was pouring out.

"Ya ain't gonna cut through those." Louisa told him. "Hephaestian metal." She smirked. Max glowered at her. "Just sayin'." Louisa shrugged. "So, livin' in the sewers? Great place ta be. Considerin' ya get three meals a day, a bath- which you need, may I add- 'n' a nice, warm bed ta sleep in at home."

"Shut up." Max slashed at her lower legs, but her lightning quick reflexes allowed her to disarm him easily.

Louisa drew another arrow, studying it.

"This'll do." She decided.

"What's that?" Annabeth quizzed, eyeing the arrow warily.

"Ya might wanna stand back." Louisa said carefully. Max had a hunch and hurriedly tried to free himself. Annabeth and Percy glanced at each other before taking Louisa's advice.

Louisa threw the arrow casually at Max before making a run for it.

The arrow exploded, billowing pale green knock out gas. Percy whipped up a miniature hurricane to keep it away from them, listening to Max coughing and choking against the thick gas.

Reaching for another arrow a minute later, Louisa sighed. "I did tell you he'd be trouble." Annabeth glared at her.

"He's still our son, Lou."

"Yeah, I know that. I was just sayin'." She fired and the arrowhead opened with little vents. It absorbed the knock out gas and Percy dropped his hurricane. Max had slumped on his side, unconscious.

Percy moved forward with his twin. She unravelled the bounds around Max's legs and Percy picked him up. Max was worryingly light and thin.

* * *

When Max woke up, he found himself lying on a soft sofa. He felt a bit better and he had a thick, warm blanket covering him.

"He's awake!" Max winced at the loud voice close by, looking to his right. Sage was watching him worriedly. "Are you OK?" She asked, quietening her voice. Max just stared at her. "Dad carried you in about an hour ago." Max tried to sit up, but his head span and a wave of nausea washed over him. "Lou said you shouldn't move for a few hours 'cos of the after effects of the knock out gas."

Annabeth appeared, holding a plate of apple pie- Max's favourite.

"How are you feeling?" She asked gently, kneeling and feeling his forehead. Max leaned away from her, not noticing the flicker of pain in her eyes. "Eat this." She mumbled, resting the plate on his lap. She went to find her husband.

Percy was sat on the end of Theo's bed, telling the triplets a bedtime story. He smiled warmly at Annabeth as she entered.

"And then Daddy decided to finish the story tomorrow."

"Aw, no fair!" Theo complained. Percy chuckled.

"It's late, trips. Get some sleep." Percy moved from bed to bed, tucking them all in and kissing them goodnight. He switched the night light on and left, closing the door behind him. "How's it going, Wise-girl?"

"He's awake, but he's not happy."

"Is he eating?"

"I did give him food, but I don't know. Come and talk to him, please." She begged. Percy nodded, taking her hand and leading her downstairs.

Max was sitting up, propped up against pillows Sage was plumping up. He was devouring the apple pie and seemed happy with it, but frowned when he finished it all too quickly. Annabeth went and heated up a ready meal.

Percy sat at Max's feet and Sage sat on his lap, yawning.

"So, where've you been hiding?" Percy smiled warmly. Max shrugged, smoothing the blanket over his legs. He didn't seem bothered by the clean, cotton bandages around his arm, but Sage was studying them sleepily and warily.

Annabeth turned up a minute later with a steaming plate of ready meal roast dinner. Max took it hungrily, his eyes lighting up at the sight of food. He didn't talk, happily wolfing down the meal.

"Slowly, Max, you'll make yourself sick." Annabeth smiled. Max slowed a little, but the prospect of food was there and his.

After the food, Max yawned. He looked round.

"Max?" Percy asked, looking concerned.

"Why'd you bring me back?"

"This is your home." Percy replied simply. "We're your parents. We found you in the sewers after stealing vodka, remember?" Max didn't respond. Sage yawned in Percy's arms, slowly drifting off to sleep. "I take it you're not going to talk."

Max didn't.

Of course he didn't.

He couldn't.


	12. Nightmares

"What's that noise?" Annabeth propped herself up on her elbow, looking around her dark room sleepily. "Percy, wake up! That's Max." Percy forced himself up and he stumbled to the door.

Max had dozed off on the sofa and they had left him there with an extra blanket and pillows. He hadn't told them anything.

Leaning on the railing and staring down at the ground floor, Percy sat Max thrashing about and yelling in blind panic on the sofa, fighting a nightmare. Percy hurried downstairs, Annabeth hot on his heels.

They reached the bottom of the stairs when Max woke himself up by falling off the sofa and entangling himself in the blankets.

"Max, calm down, calm down." Percy hurriedly removed the blankets and grabbed Max by his bandaged wrists. "It's OK, Max, it's us. Calm down, breathe, alright?" Max stared up at his father with wild, frightened eyes; breathing heavily.

Annabeth dropped to her knees next to Max, feeling his forehead.

"He's a bit warm. Do I get him some ambrosia, nectar or just water?"

"Water will be alright." Percy said softly, a hint of appreciation in his tone. Annabeth nodded, got up and left for the kitchen. "What was it about?" Max continued to stare at him, trying to level his breathing.

Two days after running away, Max had been staggering about the streets, drunk and still drinking. He had stumbled in an alley and leant against the wall. He was quite content there, trying to spot hot girls while downing more WKD.

Something had smacked him across the back of the head and he had blacked out. Being drunk had left his memories fuzzy, but he was certain of being in the white room again.

Unfortunately, there was no hot, mysterious girl sitting on him or in the room. He couldn't ask for her number now.

Second, he realised that somebody had stolen his T-shirt and that he was sat up with his hands tied together on the other side of a floor-to-ceiling thick wooden post.

Looking around, Max squinted in the bright light the room emitted. It was bringing on a headache and worsening his hangover.

Wait… he had a hangover? How long had he been unconscious then?

He sensed a presence behind him and then a cold blade pressed to his throat.

"You've been trying to fight us." A voice growled in his ear. It was familiar, but then again it wasn't. "That's not a good idea, boy." Their fingers traced over the scarlet lines on his left wrist. "This is interesting." The knife moved and was pressed against a healing scar. "This is very interesting." Max bit down on his bottom lip as his captor dragged the knife through his skin and flesh, slicing deeper than Max had ever dared. "Aw, did that hurt?" They cooed mockingly. Their presence vanished and replaced with a white-hot sensation rippling across his shoulders. Max cried out in pain and the fiery object was removed. "I was expecting something more stubborn, more… Roman… but either way, this will be entertaining."

"What do you want?" Max asked through gritted teeth, trying to gain control over his pain.

"What do I want? Well, control over all demigods, Olympus to be rubble and for those pathetic Titans to pay, but I wouldn't mind a chocolate muffin right now." Max frowned, but said nothing. What idiot villain had priorities for a chocolate muffin alongside world domination? "Oh, and I want to tear your stupid family apart."

"They're not stupid." Max growled. The burning item was placed against his lower back and he writhed in pain, whimpering instead of crying out.

"What have done to them recently, boy? What have you said to them?"

"That wasn't me." Max protested weakly.

"Huh, that's funny. Your family has the impression that it was you." Max pulled pathetically on the bonds but his captor grabbed him by the hair and slammed his head against the wooden post.

Stars flared in Max's vision and he was only half-aware of a hand at his throat. "I wouldn't try and escape." The gaoler growled threateningly. "You will only go when I want you to go. But until then, let me set up… entertainment for you." Max didn't hear anything beyond that, unconsciousness taking over.

By 'entertainment', his captor meant watching visions of his family and friends being horrifically killed dozens of times each night, awake or asleep. Each one was gorier and more heart-wrenching than the last. Max couldn't fight them, screaming and crying while pulling on the chains binding him to the wall to no avail.

The latest one was of his brother, Alvie. The younger brother was running up the hill of Camp Half-Blood, towards the pine tree. Peleus wasn't there and neither was the Golden Fleece. The tree appeared long dead, the pines yellow or missing, scattered in clumps about the floor. The grass on the hill was dying and crunchy under Alvie's feet. He slipped on uneven ground in the dark, but he kept running. He was covered in blood and mud, a simple demigod knife in his hand.

He reached the top of the hill, breathing heavily. Max saw tear-streaks slicing through the dirt and blood on Alvie's face.

Alvie looked back and let out a sob. Max looked as well.

The whole of Camp Half-Blood was ablaze. Flies hung low over a pile of decomposing and mutilated bodies. There were about fifty or so figures moving about the piles corpses, prodding at them with long spears and dragging free anyone who was hiding under the dead in feeble attempts of survival.

One of the figures turned and happened to spot Alvie. They pointed and a faint shout reached them. Alvie turned and ran down the hill, but four figures had broken free of their duty and were quickly catching up with him.

Max screamed Alvie's name, but the younger brother didn't register him. The four pursuers had reached the top of the hill. Three of them drew back their right hands, armed with _pila. _The fourth shouted a command and the three loosed the weapons. Alvie dodged the first one, but the second landed clean through his lower leg. Alvie's cry of pain and terror tore at Max's heart, snatching away all hope and forcing a heavy burden of despair upon it.

The third _pila_ hit home and Alvie's cries were cut out.

Max opened his eyes, crying and choking on his sobs.

It took him a while to realise he was sat in an alley. It was the same alley he had stopped in all that time ago while drunk and on the hunt for a hot girl to flirt with.

Calming his breathing and wiping his eyes on the back of his hand, Max looked round. Nobody walking past the alley paid him any attention.

Ten feet away stood a newspaper stand. Max forced himself to his feet and staggered on wobbly legs to the stand.

Sixteen, possibly seventeen days had passed.

Max let that sink in, partially aware that the stand owner was watching him cautiously. A grubby, starved and shaking sixteen year old boy was either trouble or in trouble.

Before the owner could say anything, Max turned and ran.

He ran and ran and ran, not stopping until the stitch in his side was roaring at him, his legs were ready to fall off and his head was spinning something chronic.

Looking around and breathing heavily, Max saw he had stopped outside a convenience store. He stumbled inside and headed straight for the alcohol section.

He needed a strong drink, damn whoever criticised him to hell.

But he was caught by the shop keeper. Max made a run for it, taking three bottles of strong vodka with him.

Ten minutes later, he was caught by his aunt and parents and knocked unconscious with knock out gas.

Max looked up, realising his father was watching him worriedly. Flashes of his nightmares played in his mind and Max closed his eyes. Emotion was tearing at his heart. The pain was so intense; it was as if the Minotaur was ripping his heart out.

Annabeth returned, resting a hand on Max's shoulder. He flinched, but relaxed slightly when she handed him a glass of water.

Looking for any excuse to stay quiet, Max deliberately sipped slowly at the water. Annabeth knelt next to Percy, her worried expression matching that of her husband's.

At some point, they helped him back onto the sofa and Annabeth tucked the blankets around him, like she used to when he had a nightmare when he was younger.

Max wished he was younger again. He didn't have a care in the world and his parents weren't as worried as they were now about him. They were more playful.

Being younger meant that his siblings and cousins didn't hate him; he had friends that trusted him at school and teachers that praised his good work.

But that had been and gone, never to come back.

In a desperate bid to stay sane, Max focused on the good memories of his childhood. It helped lull him to sleep, his parents sitting next to him. Annabeth was running a hand through his hair, a relaxing method she had used with all her sons as they grew up.

For once, Max had a decent night's sleep and was mildly happy. He had ended the day without arguing with his parents or having a single drink.

That wasn't going to last though.

* * *

**Sorry if anything gory upset anybody. **


	13. Panda

**I'm depressed. I read this seriously depressing fic about Nico- it's called 'Remember' by RavenTempestShadowhunter- go and read it and get back to me. I was so damn close to crying- my parents were in the room and I would've probably been dragged to a loony bin for fangirls. If it destroys your feels, I'm sorry…**

* * *

Max woke up to the smell of bacon. He looked round groggily before noticing Sage holding out a plate of bacon sandwiches to him. Her expression was neutral, but he noticed the worry in her eyes. Sitting up, Max glanced around the living room. The rest of his siblings were up. Percy was wrestling lightly to get Theo or Callum into his high chair at the dinner table while the other boy triplet laughed happily. Lilly was the nice and behaved triplet, wobbly eating her breakfast. Alvie was sat opposite them with his head on the table.

He took the plate of bacon sandwiches from Sage and she instantly left to help her father.

"Callum, stop it." She said firmly. Callum stopped squirming in Percy's arms. Percy looked bewildered but took the chance to get his son in his high chair.

"How'd you tell them about?" He asked. Sage smirked and Percy pulled a face. "Go away, you horrible child." Sage giggled and Percy smiled.

"Max is awake." She told him before skipping off to find her mother.

"You didn't answer my question!" Percy called after her. He sighed and moved over to Max. "How're you feeling, bud?" Max gave a monotonous nod, hurriedly filling his mouth with bacon sandwich. Percy studied his face for a few seconds before ruffling his hair and moving on.

Max watched as Callum or Theo threw their baby cup (with the non-leaking lid) at Alvie. The dull thud and the lid bursting off, cascading water all over the table surface woke Alvie up. Callum/Theo laughed happily. Alvie merely rolled his eyes, getting up and going to the kitchen. He returned with a cloth and dutifully started to clean up the water.

As Max sat there, watching his younger brother and munching on bacon sandwiches, he realised how much crap Alvie actually went through. Wincing, he remembered that he had caused some of that crap a lot recently. Alvie walked past him, deliberately not looking at him. One part of Max was shameful and traumatised at this, but the other part of him was sneering, '_You deserve that_.'

Annabeth walked in, carrying three lots of toast, bacon, baked beans and mini sausages on plastic plates- blue for the boys and pink for Lilly- carefully setting them down in front of the triplets. The triplets had matching cutlery and lidded cups to go with their plates. Callum didn't have his cup. Looking round, Annabeth noticed the cup sadly missing its lid on the other side of the table.

"You didn't throw that at Alvie, did you?" She asked sternly, placing her hands on her hips. Callum shook his head, flicking on an innocent expression. Annabeth studied him disbelievingly and the infant eventually nodded. "When Alvie comes back, you apologize, OK?" Callum nodded again. Annabeth chucked him under the chin before telling her youngest children to eat up.

She stopped by Max on the way back to the kitchen. "Are you OK?" She asked. Max gave a stiff nod, slowly chewing the last of his sandwich. "No more nightmares?" He shook his head. "What were they about?" He didn't reply, glancing down at his food. Suddenly, it didn't seem so appealing.

Annabeth sighed. "Is there anything I can get you?"

"A drink would be nice." He muttered. She frowned slightly.

"What kind of drink?" She asked quietly, wary of her young children behind her. Max shrugged.

"Something strong."

"No alcohol." She gripped his hand briefly before getting up and returning to the kitchen.

Max sighed. He should have expected as much. As if his mother would give him alcohol.

He needed it though. It washed away the pain, the control, the nightmares… for a few hours; he could just forget everything and not care.

Looking at the bandages on his wrists, Max realised he had stopped caring a long time ago.

* * *

Annabeth and Percy kept a close eye on him all day. He wasn't allowed up except to go to the bathroom. On a few occasions, he asked for something alcoholic, but they refused him.

"Max?" Max looked up from resting his head on his knees. Lilly had toddled over to him, watching him with nervous, big sea green eyes. She clutched her favourite panda toy to her chest. "Mammy said you were ill. You get better soon?" Max shrugged, resting his chin on his knees. "Have you lost your voice?" She asked slowly. Max shook his head. "Why you no talk then?" He didn't answer that. "Do you need hug?" Max glanced at her through the corner of his eye. She didn't wait for a reply, but held her panda toy out to him.

He was genuinely surprised at this gesture. She never let go of that toy, her personal source of comfort and security. And suddenly she was handing it over to Max.

Max cautiously took the toy. Its fur was matted and worn out in places, but it had survived through Lilly's loving and playing.

Lilly climbed up onto the sofa in front of him, standing on his feet and folding her arms across his knees, watching him carefully.

For the first time in ages, Max managed a small smile.

Bless his little sister.


	14. Crash

The panda sat on Max's knee, staring at him with those beady eyes.

_What are you going to do, Max_? It seemed to ask.

What Max wanted to do was get out and getting something alcoholic. He really, _really _needed it, with a desire and craving that was mounting on insane. His parents obviously refused to help him; Alvie didn't want to talk to him while the rest of his siblings were too young to understand. Well, maybe not Sage, but she would blab to Annabeth and then that would either spark a row or more worry, leading to his parents restricting him to the house alone under surveillance.

_Max, you haven't answered my question._

Max sighed. What was he going to do? If he ran away again, there was that nagging fear of being caught and tortured again.

He closed his eyes against the tide of emotions welling in his chest and decided against running away again. He decided against running away in fear of those people catching him again and forcing the return of those nightmares to plague him in every waking and sleeping moment. Here, at home, he was safe and could see that his family was as well.

The panda watched him with those unblinking eyes, demanding an answer.

Somebody started ringing the doorbell, pulling Max from his thoughts. He figured it was his aunt as she was the only one who held the button down to make the doorbell ring until the door was answered.

"We need to change that gods-dammit doorbell!" Annabeth shouted at her husband. Percy smiled sheepishly, answering the door and grabbing his sister by the wrist to stop her ringing the doorbell.

"What'd you want?"

"Ain't that nice?"

"Hi, Lou, how are you, that's nice." Percy sighed, rolling his eyes. Louisa mimicked and barged past her brother, Charlie at her heels. "You haven't killed the others, have you?"

"No…" She smiled sweetly. Percy decided to take that as her teasing him and didn't say anything further on it. He hadn't seen Leo, Elsie or Alokia in the last few weeks; having only talked to Leo briefly on the phone. Leo still hadn't forgiven Max for whatever Max had tapped out in Morse code. Elsie hadn't forgiven Max full stop and Alokia couldn't take the tension between her sister and her cousin.

Louisa snapped her fingers next to Alvie's ear. He didn't wake up.

"Lou, leave him." Percy dragged her away. "He's actually sleeping for once." Louisa looked down at Charlie and he smiled. "No, Charlie, don't- why do I even bother sometimes?" Charlie had pinched Alvie's leg. Alvie turned his head and looked at his younger cousin sleepily. Charlie gave an angelic smile and Alvie sighed. "Alvie, I'm sure your bed is a lot comfier than the table."

"And it has less annoying people around it." Annabeth added, throwing a quick glare at Louisa.

"Charlie." Louisa motioned and Charlie obediently returned to her side, smiling broadly. "Guess what?" Louisa smirked.

"Has Unki Percy got ice-cream in freezer?" Louisa nodded and Charlie's smile brightened. He turned to his uncle.

"Would you like some ice-cream?" Percy asked before his nephew opened his mouth. Charlie nodded eagerly.

"Please, Unki Percy!"

"That's my ice-cream." Percy muttered as he walked past his sister, Charlie following close behind. Louisa just smirked.

"Hey, Max has Lilly's panda. What's that about?"

"I don't know. Lilly said she gave Max the panda to make him happy."

"Well, he has a face like a slapped ass, so I'm guessin' it ain't worked?"

"Lou!" Louisa made to protest, but sighed. "Look, Lilly was trying to help and she's happy thinking that the panda is cheering Max up." Annabeth glanced round before quietly adding. "Max wants a drink and we're not letting him."

"Oh…" Louisa said as if that summed everything up.

* * *

After three days without satisfying his need for a drink (or two… or more), Max had snuck out.

He hated his decision, but he couldn't fight the internal demand for something alcoholic.

Kane always had a bottle of vodka or something lying around. Max could have one of those before the shops opened for him to go out and _borrow_ some.

The gang leader seemed mildly surprised to see Max, considering the newbie in his group had been missing for nearly three weeks, but he let Max in.

Kane had the gang round. Max was overwhelmed by the stench of faeces, bodily odour, alcohol and some drug that he couldn't place. The apartment was small, grimy and plain disgusting. Kane's parents were in another room, but it wasn't like they cared what went on in the gang.

"So, where've you been?" Kane asked, leading Max to the scummy and mouldy kitchen after hearing Max's request.

"Uh, just around really."

"Ran away, didn't you, Jackson?" Max pulled a face admittedly and Kane smirked. He handed over an oddly pristine bottle of vodka. Max studied it cautiously and Kane snickered. "Don't worry; it's from that posh shop with the snobby git behind the counter. We like the expensive shit, not the cheap shit."

"Got that right…" Max muttered.

"You gonna be hanging around, bro?" Max shook his head.

"I've got stuff to do."

"Anything I can help with?"

"No, you're alright."

"Well, get me a wallet- lots of cash- and we'll be even." Kane nodded at the vodka bottle in Max's hand. "I want it next time I see you." Max nodded before leaving.

* * *

Getting the wallet was easy. He only had to do when he was sober. After that, he stole a few more bottles from the 'posh shop' and bolted for the park. He knew a quiet spot where he could down the vodka and just forget about everything without the worry of some 'Samaritan' stopping to help a drunken teen.

Max quite happily spent most of the morning in the park, just sitting there and emptying the bottles. At some point, he forced himself to his feet and staggered out, the last bottle still half-full in his hand. He had many disapproving glances thrown his way, but he didn't care.

About half an hour later, he stumbled upon Kane and the gang. Kane grinned evilly when he saw Max completely out of it. Max managed to get the stolen wallet into Kane's hand before tripping and colliding with someone else in the group. They were laughing at him, but Max paid no attention. Kane was still grinning, so he was happy with the eighty or so dollars Max had found in the wallet.

"You're getting good, Jackson." Max just nodded, draining the last of the drink. He felt a hand on his elbow. "You've had a bit much, don't you think?"

"Dude…" Max slurred. "Three days… without a drink… I'm doing good…" Max swayed and somebody else grabbed his other elbow. "What… what do you care… anyway? You… think it's… funny… when I'm… drunk…"

"Well, yeah, it's funny, but we don't want you too drunk, Jackson. We can't get you to do nothing."

"Double negative…" Max mumbled. Kane just rolled his eyes.

Ten minutes passed, two members of the gang continued to hold Max up. None of them seemed to notice the sea breeze passing over the group.

Max's head cleared slightly. An icy feeling settled in the pit of his stomach.

Why had Poseidon reduced his drunken state? Frowning, Max realised something was about to happen.

Seconds after he thought that, somebody collided with him. They both nearly fell over, but Max had regained his balance and stopped whoever had crashed into him from falling over as well.

"Crystal? Where are you going?" She looked up at him, annoyed. He let her go and waited for her to answer.

"I'm late." She said shortly. The others in the group snickered. Max found a smirk playing on his lips, understanding his friends' innuendo. The irritation on her face increased. "Look, I'm supposed to be meeting Alvie at the cinema and I'm running late, so move."

"You want us to move?" Kane challenged.

"No, I want you to bloody tap dance. Yes, just move!" Kane grabbed Crystal by the wrist, pushing his face in hers.

"You want to watch that tongue, missy." He snarled. Crystal attempted to free herself from Kane's iron grip, but Kane wasn't feeling too generous.

Max glanced up for some bizarre reason and saw a figure dart across the roads. Too late, he realised who it was.

Kane had pushed Crystal into the road. There was a blare of a horn, the gaining red car and then…

Max didn't watch. He heard the thud, praying to all the gods it wasn't him.

Opening his eyes, Max's heart sunk.

"Alvie…" Crystal crawled over to Alvie's unconscious form, holding her left hand precariously to her chest.

The driver got out of the car, pale with shock and fear. Max felt someone pushing him. He found himself automatically stumbling into a run.

It didn't matter how fast he ran, Tobias still caught up with him.

The air was slammed out of his lungs as Tobias pinned him harshly against a wall, his hands at Max's throat. Max had never seen Tobias so angry, the icy fingers of fear trailing down his spine and spreading throughout his body.

"Why did you do that?!" Tobias demanded angrily.

"I… I d-didn't p-p-push him…" Max protested weakly, pulling on his older brother's fingers to no avail. Tobias's grip tightened, ferocity darkening his eyes.

"It was your bloody friends! I told you they were trouble, but you didn't fucking listen to me! Now look what's happened!"

"I- I'm s-s-sorry…"

Tobias didn't let off. Max wasn't sure how long Tobias strangled him, but he could feel the lack of oxygen bringing on unconsciousness.

Suddenly, Tobias was pulled away. Max crumpled, breathing in lungfuls of gracious air.

Later, he would vaguely remember the police rushing around.

Half an hour later, Max had found himself in a police cell, paying for his crimes. Tobias was in one as well, but Max had no thoughts other than his younger brother.

Tobias had been right. This was all Max's fault.

* * *

**Is this OK? I've updated twice on Max's story tonight. And in case anyone mentions it- yes, the lines spoken leading up to the crash are exactly the same so I could have the same scene from a different point of view. **

**And this whole thing would be grammatically correct if it wasn't for Tobias and his **_**"Why did you do that?!"**_


	15. Second attempt

For some unknown and probably unwise reason, Tobias and Max had been let out on bail three days later. At the same time.

It turned out Athena had gotten them out and she marched Tobias out while Poseidon took Max away. The brothers were kept apart until they reached the hospital. Percy was waiting outside for them, continuously glancing over his shoulder, indicating he wanted to get back to his wife and Alvie.

Athena kept a firm grip on Tobias's upper arm, dragging him past Percy and away from Max.

Max looked up at his father as Poseidon escorted him past. Percy's expression and eyes remained neutral. Max looked down at his feet and filed past silently.

Percy felt a hand on his shoulder and glanced round. Poseidon was watching him with concern in his eyes. Percy didn't say anything, looking back to see Tobias struggling against Athena when he noticed Max ten steps behind.

"Those two need to sit down and talk." Poseidon advised.

"Max doesn't talk though." Percy complained. "Do you know what's wrong with him?" Poseidon sighed.

"I and Athena have tried, but there is some form of block in his mind and we can't delve further than what you know already. We will keep trying though." Percy muttered his thanks, casting his eyes back at his eldest two. Athena had Tobias firmly by the shoulders and was directing him away while Max stood rooted to the spot, looking back at his father with frightened and hurt eyes.

"See, it's things like this that confuse me. One minute, he's a godly pain in the ass and the next he's just scared and… and…"

"Unstable?" Poseidon suggested.

"Something like that." Percy started walking, Poseidon following. Max fell in step next to his father, casting nervous eyes at everything around him.

Back in Alvie's room, Max seemed to shrink back, standing close to Percy. Tobias was being restrained by Athena, his girlfriend and his mother on the other side of the room.

"Tobias, enough now." Annabeth ordered shortly. Tobias only turned his glower on her.

"Why are you sticking up for him? He did this to Alvie!"

"No, he didn't!" Annabeth snapped.

"It was his goddamn friends!"

"Yes. His _friends_. It _wasn't_ him!"

"If he had listened to us and not hung out with them, Alvie wouldn't be like this!"

"Tobias, enough!" Percy demanded; temper sparking in his voice towards one of his children for the first time. Tobias was mildly surprised at first, but shook it off and turned on Max. "I mean it, Tobias. Fighting isn't going to help Alvie!"

"But-" Percy's gaze suddenly hardened. Tobias clenched his jaw in annoyance, reluctantly keeping quiet. He continued to glare at Max, but he didn't say anything.

"Seaweed Brain?" Annabeth asked gently. Percy sighed, running a hand over his eyes. Annabeth moved around the bed and took his hand. It was obvious Percy was worried about Alvie, probably more than anyone. He had always worried about Alvie. Not just because Alvie was autistic, but just because Alvie didn't seem to take to the demigod side of his life, not even with basic self-defence. He was at higher risk than the others and that's what worried Percy the most.

Annabeth hugged him, Percy resting his forehead against hers.

* * *

Max managed to sneak out later that day, dying for a drink. He avoided alleys, despite knowing that Kane and the gang were locked up somewhere.

It was easy for him to nab a bottle of vodka. After that, he just walked, trying to drown out all thoughts of Alvie.

Not that he didn't care, of course he did. Knowing he was to blame for what happened to Alvie was only tearing Max apart. Spending the last four hours sitting next to a brother that would probably never wake up, it was a miracle he hadn't cracked then.

It eventually grew too much for him and he had to go. He half-expected Tobias to follow him, but Sophia was holding onto him at that point.

Max noticed the bottle was empty and scowled. He wasn't as drunk as he would like to be. Throwing the bottle aside, Max realised where he was.

In front of him, as far as the eye could see and further, was the vast extent of the glittering, smooth ocean.

The smell of the sea; the gentle cascade of water on the beach and the laughter of families enjoying the sunshine. It was all mockery of his life, of his troubles, but it also bought an odd sense of clarity.

Max stumbled down to the water's edge, tripping on something hidden beneath the water. He threw out his hands to break his fall, sea water splashing into his face. His mind cleared a fraction more, but it was only making him see more sense in what he had to do.

Willing away the water, Max noticed what he had tripped over. Mostly buried in the sand was a large, dark and sharp rock. He dug it out, not caring when the jagged edges of the rock scraped skin from his fingers.

It was a fairly large rock, he discovered ten minutes later. It was slightly bigger than a basketball and weighed about seven kilos.

He heard muttering behind him but didn't pay attention, carrying the boulder and walking straight into the water.

"Young man!" Somebody called. He sighed, muttering a curse. A rush of wind slammed past him, bringing with it a tingling sensation- the Mist. There were no footsteps behind him, no-one shouting for his attention and the parents went back to minding their children.

Max couldn't breathe underwater like his father could, but that wasn't going to stop him from trying. The rock was just to drag him down faster.

He wanted this to end and it wanted this to end today.

* * *

Poseidon suddenly tensed.

"Dad?" Percy asked. Poseidon held his son's gaze and then they were both running from the room.

"Percy!?" Annabeth shouted after her husband. She made to go after him, but her mother grabbed her by the arm and pointed at Alvie. "Oh gods…" Annabeth hastily moved to Alvie's side. He was grimacing and shaking his head, mumbling and giving the occasional cry of terror. "What's going on?" Annabeth looked frantically at her mother, holding Alvie's hand and running a hand through his hair in an attempt to comfort him.

Athena motioned with her head to have a word with Annabeth outside. "Tobias, stay with him." Annabeth ordered before hesitantly following her mother outside.

* * *

Percy nearly lost his balance, but Poseidon grabbed him by the elbow, instantly steadying him.

"The Mist has been used recently." Poseidon commented. They glanced round at the other people on the beach. "They are under its spell." Percy didn't respond, splashing forward into the waves and diving underneath. Poseidon followed.

Percy followed the trail of bubbles, willing the water around him to make him move faster.

He spotted Max and tried to go faster.

Hooking his arms around Max, Percy noticed that Max was unconscious with minimal bubbles issuing from his mouth. The teen was limp in his arms.

Percy kicked up, going as quickly as he could without using his powers. Max didn't have his underwater abilities and according to Annabeth, a normal (non-Seaweed Brain) person would die if they rose too quickly in the water- something about nitrogen bubbles…

As they broke the surface, Percy saw that his son wasn't breathing.

"Max." Max's head lolled onto his shoulder, water dripping down from his hair and over his eyes. He didn't stir. "Max." Percy said again, insistence and pleading deepening in his voice.

Poseidon reappeared, giving Percy orders to swim to shore.

"Percy?" Poseidon frowned when Percy didn't move. It took a few seconds to figure out his son was in shock.

The sea god rested a hand on Percy's head. Percy inhaled sharply.

"OK, OK." He said, balancing Max's limp form on his back and swimming to shore.

He lay Max on the sand and checked for a pulse, his heart sink and panic rising when there wasn't one. Poseidon knelt opposite Percy on Max's right, rolling the teen onto his front. Poseidon clicked his fingers and Max seemed to vomit water, but he still didn't breathe.

Percy rolled Max onto his back and started CPR.

"Poseidon!" A deep voice boomed.

"Not now, Zeus!"

"It has been decreed you are not to intervene, brother."

"What?" Poseidon raged. "By who?"

"The ancient laws." Zeus replied solemnly.

"Bugger off, Zeus."

"Thirty." Percy did two breathes before returning to chest compressions. "Dad, just go. Nobody wants World War Three." Poseidon glowered, but saw sense in his son's words. He could also tell that, in reality, Percy wanted him to stay, but Zeus was the king god and was watching them.

Poseidon muttered a curse, getting to his feet.

"You are truly heartless." He told Zeus. Percy averted his eyes as the two gods flashed away.

Somebody wandered over, telling Percy they were ringing an ambulance. Percy nodded his thanks, continuing CPR. Max's ribs cracked, a sign of effective CPR.

"Are you his dad?" The person asked. Percy nodded. "His father is doing CPR. He pulled him from the water about two minutes ago." The man listened to the operator for a few seconds before holding the phone out to Percy. Momentarily pausing in his attempts to save his son, Percy gratefully took the phone, holding it between his ear and shoulder.

"Hello?" He asked, picking up from where he left off.

"Are you the boy's father?"

"Yeah."

"Was this a suicide attempt?"

"Yeah…" Percy replied quietly.

"Has he attempted suicide in the past?"

"A few weeks ago." Percy told them about Max's drinking and self-harming habits.

"Alright, sir, an ambulance is on its way."

"Thank you." Percy handed the phone back to its owner, leaning forward to do mouth-to-mouth. "Come on, Max…"

* * *

The ambulance turned up five minutes later. Max was rushed to hospital, Percy in the back of the ambulance. He wasn't sure what they were doing, but all he could figure out was that they had put a tube down Max's throat and that one of the crew members was 'breathing' for Max, using some bag thing. Max was also on a heart monitor. It didn't make any sense to Percy but according to the paramedic, Max was in 'VF', whatever that was.

They arrived at the same hospital as the one Alvie was in ten minutes later. Percy met Annabeth in the corridor and she was in tears with worry.

"What's going on? How's Max?" Percy hesitated before explaining. He got halfway through, but Annabeth shook her head. "He's going to be OK, right?" Percy sighed.

"I was doing CPR, Wise-girl. I couldn't get anything from him." He frowned slightly in confusion, remembering what the paramedics had been saying and doing on the way here. He explained as best he could to Annabeth. Tears leaked from her eyes and he fell quiet, pulling her into a hug.

"What if we lose them both?" She sobbed.

"We won't." Percy replied automatically, keeping his voice monotonous as to not betray his worry.

_Don't do this, please don't do this._


	16. Struggling

"_Ah, that's cold!" _

"_It's OK, Max, you'll get used to it." Percy smiled down at him warmly. _

"_But Daddy, it's really cold." Max insisted. Percy held out his hand and Max happily wrapped his fingers around Percy's. "Where's Tobias, Daddy?" _

"_He's with your mommy." _

"_Why?" _

"_He wasn't feeling well, remember?" _

"_Why?" _

"_He's probably just car sick." Percy adjusted Max's water wings, now waist deep himself in the ocean. _

"_Daddy, we see granddad 'Sidon?" _

"_Maybe later, Max. He's very busy. Now swim." _

"_How?" _

Max felt himself waking up.

_No, I don't want to. _It was useless fighting to stay asleep, but that was his first time at the beach and one of his most treasured memories. He had been so excited then and he got to spend quality time with his father, which pleased the pair of them. He remembered getting ice-cream as well.

"Max?" The voice sounded distant. "Max?" They repeated, their voice clearing. Somebody took his hand and he stirred. "Max, come on, sweetie, wake up."

"No…" He complained, weakly pulling his hand away. He didn't want to wake up. Not just because of the memory, but because he didn't want to wake up full stop.

He opened his eyes despite himself, meeting his mother's worried gaze. She breathed a sigh of relief and a small smile crossed her lips.

"Oh, Max, you scared us." Max didn't respond to that, looking around the room. Annabeth suspected he was looking for his father, but he was actually looking for something sharp. "Percy's walking around. He was in a right state, Max."

Instead, he spied the CCTV cameras in the corners of the room and realised he was back on suicide watch.

Sighing miserably, Max closed his eyes and dropped his head on his pillow. "What's the matter? Does your head hurt?"

"Why won't you just let me die?" He asked her, opening his eyes. Annabeth looked surprised and stricken.

"What-? Max, you're our son. We love you. Why would we let die?" Max tried to sit up, but pain flared in his chest and his head spun.

"If you love me so much, why won't you just help me?" He growled.

"It doesn't work like that!"

"After everything I've done! How can you still love me?" Angry tears filled Annabeth's eyes.

"There's more to this, Max, I can tell. But whenever you try to tell us, something stops you. What is it?" Max felt his throat closing and couldn't bring forth the words to reply. "See, this is what I'm talking about! Has someone done or said something?"

"Just me." He muttered.

"What can we do?"

"Just leave me."

"Anything else?" His gaze hardened.

Percy chose that moment to walk in. The split second before he noticed Max, the teen saw how pale and worried his father was. His anger dissolved into guilt and he looked down at his hands. Moments later, he felt Percy's strong arms around him.

"Oh thank gods, you're OK." Max squirmed and Percy sat next to him, his arm around him fatherly. "How are you feeling?" Max didn't respond. He could sense his father's relief ebbing back into worry. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his mother motion with her head to talk to Percy outside. Percy squeezed Max's shoulder before following his wife outside.

Max watched them through the window. Annabeth was talking to Percy, her arms wrapped around herself with her shoulders hunched. Tears glistened in her eyes. Percy suddenly looked stricken. He started to talk, but frowned in worry and confusion. Annabeth seemed to ask him something to which Percy hugged her.

After about half a minute, Annabeth had composed herself and pulled away from Percy, kissing his lips lightly. She said something to him and he nodded, letting her go. She walked out of sight. Percy glanced at Max through the window, running his hand through his hair. Max couldn't tell what his father was thinking, but he could make out the anxiety in his eyes.

Percy came back in and took Annabeth's seat. He didn't say anything. Max didn't expect him to.

* * *

Later, Max stubbornly got out of bed and padded down the hall. He had a few medical staff try and get him to go back to his room, but Max wanted to find his little brother.

Somebody grabbed his arm and he shook them off.

"Max." Max froze to the spot.

"Tobias." He acknowledged monotonously, not turning to look at his older brother.

"Why?" The word hung in the air like a swarm of bees, stinging and stinging relentlessly before falling dead to the floor.

Why? That was a good question. One Max knew the obvious answer to.

But he still couldn't answer. His voice wouldn't let him.

Tobias sighed. "Looking for Alvie?" Max nodded stiffly. Tobias walked past him. It took a few seconds for Max to work out that his older brother wanted him to follow him.

Alvie was in a room five minutes from Max's, in a separate ward.

To Max's dismay, Alvie was still unconscious.

"He will wake up, won't he?" Tobias looked ready to say something mean and sarcastic, but he stopped himself, his eyes lingering on Max's exposed wrists. Max ignored that, watching his brother and waiting for a reply.

"They're thinking of turning his ventilator off."

"How long was I out?" Tobias shrugged.

"Three days. Maybe four." Max just nodded. "Why'd you do it?"

"Why'd you think?" Max countered miserably, his gaze on his younger brother's unconscious form. "I hate this."

"Then stop it."

"I can't."

"Why?" Max opened his mouth to talk, but, once again, his voice betrayed him. Tobias frowned slightly, but didn't press him. "I've never seen Dad that upset before. First Alvie and then you…" Tobias shook his head. "Mad. This family's gone mad."

"It was already mad." Max mumbled, his voice hoarse. Tobias smiled weakly.

Inside, he was screaming. _I'm sorry, I'm so sorry…_

* * *

**I'm not planning anything mean AT ALL O:) **


	17. Trying

**Two reviews to reply to this time, scenic97. And they were short reviews as well… are you feeling OK? For the one on 'Real or false'- the story was a lot sadder in my head when I originally planned it, but that was at some crazy hour in the morning and obviously I wasn't going to get up and start scribbling in the dark 'cos Mum would have gone nuts if I woke my little sister up. I'm actually pretty glad I've gotten better at writing fighting scenes- they're so epic in my head and then when I write them, it's all poo. Now you've mentioned that, I have an urge to rewrite it, but I'm meant to be rewriting 'Leo's settled down'. STOP DISTRACTING ME WOMAN! (I haven't had sugar yet, I'm kinda cranky *smiles*). At the time, I wouldn't have killed Lou but then 'Parenthood' came along and I was all for it, even if it depressed me first.**

**And for the review on Charlie's story- Admittedly, I haven't seen Charlie the Unicorn on YouTube, but I've been told to. I just keep forgetting. Charlie broke the record on… some day at school, I don't know. Or did you mean date? He switched schools before the story, when he was nine, I think I said. Basically, he accidently set the music block or something on fire. His friends didn't switch with him, he met them at his new school/the one he is currently at. We call it a tannoy here- I wasn't sure what it was called in America, so I just stuck with what I knew. I spell 'kerb'/'curb' both ways 'cos I'm not sure which one it is. I like these cultural exchanges of Fanfiction- it helps when I'm writing stories set in America. He has curly hair, like Leo- would you not ruffle his hair? Charlie is thirteen in this story… what grade does that put him in? Here, he would be in Year Nine. What age would he be if he was in the fifth grade? Charlie is obsessed with hearts, rainbows and pegicorns because he likes to use them against 'manly' victims to reduce their 'manliness'/ publically annoy/slightly humiliate them. And why didn't he have his 'banner' for his grand take-over? It's Charlie- he probably wanted it all fireworks and dramatic effects but hadn't finished or something. Yes, I do plan on continuing the whole thing with Joe and his dad- that should be up shortly. The last two or three chapters were filler chapters. **

**I have an idea for a new one-shot as well. Don't worry, no-one will die. Unless… NO SPOILERS, ART! STOP IT!**

* * *

Two months had passed. Alvie had woken up, much to Max's relief, seven weeks ago. He was discharged a few days later, but Max wasn't. He was surprised when Alvie came to see him, hobbling about on his crutches. Crystal was with him, but she didn't seem all too happy with Max, even if she did offer him a marker to sign Alvie's blue cast.

Max wanted to sign his little brother's cast, but what if he wrote something offensive? Crystal just left the marker with him. Alvie feebly said that there probably wasn't room left on his cast, but Max could tell he was upset.

Max's parents visited every day without fail. Alvie was always with them. Sometimes the others would be as well, but six other siblings along with his parents wouldn't be easy to crowd into Max's small hospital room.

"We fixed your room up." Percy told him one day. "Alvie wanted to help, but he is lethal on those things. Tobias helped a little bit." Max looked at his older brother. Tobias didn't meet his gaze, glancing out of the window. Max did as well. Over the past few weeks, he had grown used to the figure in a white cloak appearing in his window at least three times every day. It was only him that had seen it though and he had learnt to remain quiet about it as the doctors thought he was mental and were urging him to stay longer. Max did _not_ want to stay longer. So he shut up about the figure and heard talk of letting him out for a day-trip with his family.

He didn't get to go home. He was there for another seven weeks, in which time, Alvie had his cast removed. He seemed especially happy about that, having had an itch on his shin that he couldn't get for six weeks.

Max was relieved to have left the hospital, but was annoyed at himself for not getting to the bottom of the cloaked figure in his window. His wrists had healed into scars and he hadn't had drink for two months.

Some would have thought he was back on the straight and narrow, but no.

The first night at home, curled up in his bed with the blanket tightly around him, Max was trying to ward off sleep. He didn't want to sleep. He had grown used to the semi-darkness of the hospital room, but his room at home was near pitch-black. It was childish to be scared of the dark, but that fear was there and it was growing. The dark just bought back the images.

At some point, Max did go to sleep, but he suffered greatly from repetitive nightmares- the ones that had been forced upon him as well as the crash. That nightmare extended. It always did.

He had that terror plague him on his fifth night at home. The daunting blur of red, the blare of a horn, a screech of tyres and a girl's scream filling his ears. Then the thud. The silence. All he could see was Alvie's broken and unconscious form lying in a pool of his blood while friends and family crowded around him, screaming their blame of him. Then there was the ambulance. It pulled up, the paramedics jumped out with all their equipment and then… nothing. They just checked Alvie over, shook their heads and walked away. The accusations filled his ears, surrounding him. The world was spinning, darkening. Screams, thuds and screeching brakes mingled with the horrible claims, bringing a deafening and demoralising torment upon him, one that wouldn't go away.

A sense of falling followed by a quick, yet heavy land on the floor bought Max to his senses.

He had fallen out of his bed, tangled in his bedding.

In blind panic, he fought the blanket, his tortured mind tricking him into seeing it as a coil of blame that would rear its ugly head and snap at him.

Then there were someone's warm arms around him and a soothing, shushing sound.

"It's OK, Max, calm down." Annabeth. His mother. She was there. Shaking, Max rested his head on her shoulder, his breathing heavy, quick and laboured. Annabeth continued to quieten him, running her hand through his hair in a motherly fashion. "You're OK, don't worry. I've got you."

Max felt silly and childish, needing his mother's attention and care following a nightmare, but it was also comforting and familiar, something he could handle. He appreciated her presence.

It didn't take long for Max to start stealing drink again and the second he got a hand on a knife… well… you can guess what happened.

He took some small pride in hiding it all from his parents for nearly three weeks.

"Why are you still doing this?" Annabeth pleaded, tears in her eyes. "We thought you'd gotten over that, Max." Max looked down, not daring to meet his mother's gaze.

"We were going to trust you and leave you for a few hours to see if you could manage on your own." Percy told him, his expression carefully stoic, but his eyes burning fiercely with pain and… was that guilt? Did Percy really think this was his fault?

"I-" Max started. His voice shut down and he couldn't speak further, aware that his parents were watching him expectantly and worriedly.

"What? Max, what? _Please_…" Annabeth begged, biting her bottom lip as it trembled. She was holding back her tears for his sake.

Max shook his head and turned to leave. Somebody grabbed him by his shoulder. Turning, he met his father's stern gaze.

"You're staying here until this is sorted." Percy decreed flatly. There was no changing his mind, Max could see that.

"Good luck then." Max pulled free from his father's grip and stumbled upstairs, his shoulders hunched as despair tore at him.

* * *

The following day, Max had found a quiet spot to himself, about half an hour's walk away from his home. There was an immense oak tree that stretched to around fifty feet tall or more. Max could climb about thirty feet before stopping and settling on a branch.

He liked trees. Not because there was a hot wood nymph hiding inside, but because they provided a secluded area for him to wash away everything with a long, strong drinking session.

It was during one of these drinking sessions, on his climb up to his spot, that Max felt a twinge of pain in his gut. Pausing, Max breathed slowly until the pain subsided slightly. He carried on climbing by the pulsing pain steadily returned. Ignoring it, Max reached his spot and settled on the branch, pulling the bottle of vodka from his shoulder bag.

Over the next few days, the pain increased. Max simply let himself forget about it and the rest of his terrors through drink.

"Right, you keep coming here. Get out of my tree." Max turned casually and looked at the wood nymph on a neighbouring branch. She was glaring at him.

"Shut up." He told her, taking another swig.

"You're going to kill yourself doing that."

"Good." Max snapped. "Now fuck off." Taken aback, she blinked at him. Then she scowled.

"What is your problem?" She demanded.

"That depends. Where'd you want me to start?" He growled. Anger was simmering under the surface of the nymph's expression. Max could tell it was taking everything in her power not to slap him or throw him out of her tree.

Draining the last of the bottle, Max cast his eyes over her.

"You're a Jackson." She finally said, her expression softening in shock.

"So?"

"Why don't you talk to your parents?"

"'Cos it doesn't work like that!"

"No need to shout." She said through gritted teeth, restraining her temper. "Why doesn't it work like that? What happened?"

"Oh, what is it with you poxy nosy bastards? Just leave me alone!" Max started to climb down, but he was beyond drunk now. The nymph gracefully leapt from her branch to his and grabbed his wrists as he nearly fell. "Get off me." Max snarled.

"You want to fall to your death?" She retorted sharply.

"It's better than this shit life." He tugged his hands free and carried on climbing.

"Then why don't you?" She asked, casually and easily following him down. Max froze. Why didn't he? It was just so simple. Let go of the branch and fall about thirty feet until he went splat on the pavement. It could have been classed as an accident. But his parents would know better.

"Because I can't."

"Why?" Max swallowed nervously. The nymph stood on the branch next to him, covering his hand with hers. "You can talk to me." _Yeah_, Max thought_, and then you'd tell my parents_. _Just what I need_.

"I… I just can't."

"Are you scared? Is that it?" Max looked down at the sidewalk, so far below him. Scared wasn't how he would put it, but yeah.

His chest tightened and his breathing quickly became heavier, panicked. The nymph took pity, patting his hand. There was a poof of green smoke and the next thing he knew, he was on the ground. "Get home." The nymph told him. "You seem more open when you're drunk. Try and talk to your parents."

"They'll only have a go at me for being drunk."

"Shout them down if you have to, just tell them." She gave him a quick hug before disappearing in a puff of green smoke. Max figured she had returned to her beloved tree.

* * *

He got home in about forty minutes, the pain in his gut increasing with each step he took.

Annabeth didn't seem to care he was drunk on this occasion; she was just relieved to see him.

"Mom, I…"

"What?" Annabeth held him at arm's length, studying his face worriedly. He swallowed bile, swaying on the spot. He stumbled into her hug again. Annabeth was mildly surprised at first before returning his hug. "I've got you, Max, it's OK."

"No… it's not." Max's eyes stung and he blinked stubbornly. Annabeth noticed he was shaking and that his breathing was ragged. She waited for him to speak again, rubbing his back reassuringly. "Mom, I'm so sorry…" He was about to go into further detail when he heard hurried footsteps in the hallway. A presence was suddenly behind him.

"Tobias? What's the matter?"

"Luke's… got Charlie." Tobias panted, out of breath from running. "They need… more help… Got… IM on… way over…"

"Oh gods…" Max didn't move from his mother's arms. "Max, are you OK to fight or do you want to stay here?"

"No. Don't… don't leave me." Annabeth noticed her eldest son's confusion. She shook her head, silencing him.

"Max, are you sure? You're not steady, are you?" Max started shaking his head, looking stricken. His mumbles were incoherent, but it was clear he didn't want to be left on his own. "OK, OK, go and armour up and get something to eat." Annabeth ran her hands through Max's hair. "Calm down, OK, sweetie? We're not going to leave you."

* * *

**OK, that's it for today. I actually have bought the next chapter forward a bit, but I'm not saying ****more than that, you'll have to wait until tomorrow, considering I can get it finished. If you review, I'll be nice :D Well, nice by updating, not so nice by whatever I may update with. **


	18. Sisters

Walking downstairs in full battle armour, Max noticed that Tobias, Alvie and Sage were in armour as well. He didn't feel as drunk, having had half a dozen sandwiches to absorb the alcohol.

"Sage too?"

"Yeah, she wanted to come."

"I didn't know she had armour." Max mumbled. Percy smiled and Annabeth glared at him. "Dad's fault?" Annabeth nodded and Percy's smile broadened.

Sophia and Vicky were sitting with the triplets and the Little Twins. Finn and Darcy were staring at their father in awe, not having seen him in armour before.

Tobias studied Max's face worriedly, but didn't say anything.

* * *

Ten minutes later, Percy pulled up in front of the docks. About two miles out to sea floated the Princess Andromeda II.

"Great… swimming there in full armour's going to be fun."

"Except for Dad. It's alright for Dad." Sage rolled her eyes at her father. Percy smiled cheekily, hooking his arm around Annabeth's waist.

They dived. Percy somehow extended his powers to his children and wife and they reached the ship within five minutes. The water had further reduced Max's drunken state and his head was clearer than it had been for months.

Percy charmed the water so they could get aboard. As they neared the deck, they heard sounds of battle- swords clashing, yells and the one explosion.

Elsie and Alokia ran around the corner, both armed with bows and quivers. Their armour was charred and Alokia's had a splatter of blood on it. Elsie had a stream of blood running down the side of her face from her hairline.

They were being chased by a dozen or more various demons, a hellhound included.

Sage and Annabeth drew their knives while Tobias and Percy uncapped Ice and Riptide. They ran forward while Max summoned his axes and hurled them at the hellhound. One axe skimmed past Elsie, making her jump. She spun on the spot, notching an arrow. She seemed surprised to see him there, readying an axe again.

"Elsie!" Elsie turned back to the fight, firing her arrow. It released a sonic boom and five monsters exploded into dust.

A wave of fire slammed around the corner and wiped out the army completely. Leo and Louisa appeared as the fire died down. Louisa was limping, Leo's hands were on fire and both of them looked highly pissed off.

"Where's Charlie?" Sage asked.

"Right here." They all turned. Luke stood eight metres roughly away from them in the straight corridor. Harvey stood to his right while organised and formed-up rows of another monster army stood ready and armoured behind them.

Charlie was squirming in Luke's arms, trying to break free and looking terrified. Louisa, Elsie and Alokia notched arrows and aimed at him, but they didn't fire in case Luke moved Charlie.

On Luke's left was a figure in a white cloak, the hood pulled low over their eyes. Max felt Elsie's eyes on him, but was glad that he alone wasn't seeing the figure. Elsie had repeatedly claimed he was hallucinating and some of the others had agreed with her as they had never seen the white-cloaked person.

Luke gave a cold laugh and yanked the person's hood down. "Remember her?" He taunted Max.

Of course Max remembered her. The mysterious girl with her that creamy and angelic complexion, the thick auburn hair Max wanted to play with and the molten lava eyes that captivated him.

In other words, the girl that had ruined his life. Despite that, he still wanted her number.

But she was staring at him pleadingly, true fear in her eyes. Luke's hand was on her shoulder, almost possessively.

"Max, who's that?" Alvie asked. Max didn't answer; aware Luke was raising his hand in his direction.

"Let's play a game, Max. It's called Hunt the Family." Max's vision blurred and suddenly he charged at Alvie, raising his axe. Alvie looked petrified.

"No!" Several people screamed.

Max was relieved when Tobias managed to block Max's attack.

"What is wrong with you?" He growled.

"It's not me!" Max looked pleadingly at his older brother. Tobias glowered at him in disbelief as Alvie backed up to a safer distance.

"Listen to your brother, Tobias. It's not him. It's us." Harvey stepped forward and raised his hands. Max involuntarily gave a wild swing with his axe, nearly disembowelling Tobias.

"Stop it!" The girl screamed. Luke slapped her, Harvey watching and grinning in evil amusement.

Tobias managed to disarm Max with their opponents distracted.

"What? No!" Luke waved his hand, anger coursing through him. A jolt of energy snapped up Max's spine and slammed through his body, making him cry out in pain. He crumpled to the floor, fighting the agony as best he could. "I'm in control here! You can't win!" A fresh sheet of pain blazed through him and Max whimpered.

"Mama!" Charlie cried. Louisa's eyes blazed as she took in everything.

"Charlie, campfire!"

"Wh-?" Luke started, but Charlie had spontaneously combusted. Luke cried out, dropping Charlie. The tot's fire died out and he was caught by the mysterious girl.

"That was fun!" Charlie beamed, looking dazed. The girl gave a nervous laugh and set him down, shooing him towards his family. Elsie and Alokia shot freely as Louisa scooped her son up.

"Are you OK, Curls?"

"Do it again!" Charlie laughed. Louisa smiled and handed Charlie to Leo, loading and firing alongside her daughters.

"Enough!" Harvey waved his hands and a rectangular wall of pale blue light shot up, shielding him and his friends. "Where is he?" He growled demandingly at Luke.

"He's on his way." Luke snarled in reply.

"Nope, I'm here."

"Nick?!"

"Wait, who's Nick?" Alvie asked.

"Elsie's boyfriend." Alokia replied.

"He's not my boyfriend!" Elsie protested.

"He better not be." Leo warned.

"No! He's not!" Elsie insisted, looking at her father pleadingly. Leo studied her warily. "Dad, please!"

"I'm not." Nick confirmed, smiling easily with an evil glint in his eyes. He hooked his arm around the mysterious girl's shoulders. "I'm hers."

Max cursed silently, but saw the fear deepen in the girl's eyes. She did not consent with that relationship.

The shield dropped. In a second, Louisa loaded and fired. The arrow hit Luke square in the eye- a kill shot. He keeled over backwards. Another arrow followed, silencing Harvey in the same way.

The army wavered, but Nick was present.

"Idiots!" Nick shouted at them. "Get them!" He pointed at the Jacksons and the Valdez's demandingly.

"Did you know Nick was working for Luke?" Leo demanded.

"No, honest!" Leo just nodded.

"Girls, Lou- start shooting. Leo, burn them. Percy and Tobias, take the left. Sage, you're with me."

"What about Max?"

"Charlie, Alvie, sit with him." Alvie looked put out, but he didn't protest. Again, his younger sister was being pulled into the fight and he was told to sit on the side-lines yet again. He hated that, but it was for the best. He wasn't the best of fighters in his family.

Max looked up as his younger brother and cousin knelt next to him.

"Are you OK?" Alvie asked. Max groaned in reply, closing his eyes. Alvie pressed a square of ambrosia in his hand. "Hey, that girl's coming over. She just hit that Nick guy in his…"

Max felt a hand on his shoulder seconds after Alvie had trailed off. He opened his eyes and met the girl's gaze.

"I'm so sorry, Max, they made me." She took the ambrosia from his hand and pulled a vial of the strange pink-purple liquid. Max tensed. "Relax, OK? I'm trying to help." She removed the stopper from the vial and crushed the ambrosia in her hand, dropping the crumbs in the liquid. She replaced the stopper and shook it, mixing the ingredients together. The liquid turned pale purple. "Drink this." Max turned his head away and she let out a sob. "Please, Max." She begged, tears shining in her eyes. "They made me give you the first drink. If I don't do what they say, they'll kill my little sister."

"You have a sister?" She nodded. Max's heart went out to her and when she tried to get him to drink the antidote, he didn't protest. The relief on her face made him feel better about himself. "That tasted better than the last one." He smiled weakly, making her laugh softly.

"Just sit still for a bit." Alvie drew a knife and sat up on his knees, hurling the knife. A dying shriek deafened them from a short distance. The girl turned and stared at the pile of yellow dust a metre from her. "Thank you." She said to Alvie. He nodded, sitting back down.

"What's your name?" Max asked.

"Ava."

"That's nice." Her cheeks faded pink. "What's your sister's name?"

"Phoenix." Her small smile faded slightly.

"Where is she?" Ava hesitated. "We'll find her. Alvie's great a tracking people." Alvie blinked at Max, mildly surprised to be complimented from someone who had picked on him relentlessly for the past eight months. "Alvie, you're not a dumbass. I know I said it but I never wanted to. I never meant it. I'm so sorry." Alvie didn't respond. Max didn't expect him to. Sighing, he looked down guiltily, wishing he could turn back time.

"I know where Phoenix is." He mumbled. There was a silvery-white gleam in his eyes.

"Where?" Ava pleaded, hope underlying in her voice. Alvie looked round, seeing his family still battling the army. Tobias and Percy had stolen shields from some slayed monsters and were advancing shoulder-to-shoulder.

"Is there a way around them?" He asked, looking at Ava.

"Yeah, but it's probably heavily guarded."

"We'll manage." Max smiled. "Charlie, you can spontaneously combust. Ever wanted to be a grenade?" Charlie smiled.

"Sounds like fun." He agreed. "You feeling better now?"

"Yeah." Ava got to her feet and helped Max up. Alvie and Charlie stood up as well, Charlie taking Alvie's hand. The gleam in Alvie's eyes had spread, almost changing his eye colour completely.

* * *

By 'heavily guarded', Ava meant '_heavily_ guarded'. There were about a dozen guards in every two metres and they were nearly swarmed. They wouldn't have won had it not been for Charlie bursting into flames and sprinting down the hall, laughing like a crazed lunatic to scare them away a few metres. This allowed Alvie to chase them away with dozens, maybe a hundred or more storm owls while Max summoned ice shards from the air and hurled them at the opponents. Ava was stealing a sword and a shield from a downed guard, one of Max's axes in his chest.

Max's axes were great- he could throw them long distances with incredible accuracy, thanks to his aunt. The more he took down, the bloodier his axes got. Charlie ended up steering clear of them and armed himself with a small knife he had found. For a four year old, he was lethal with that small weapon.

"OK, here." Alvie said after what felt like hours of taking down guards. Max had channelled energy into creating thick ice walls blocking the corridor and standing six metres apart and was now exhausted, leaning against the wall for support with his head spinning crazily and waves of sickness panging through him. His stomach was hurting like crazy, but he focused himself on the situation at hand.

"Charlie, can you pick that lock?" Charlie nodded, raising his knife. It was as almost as blood stained as Max's axes from where he had stabbed people in the feet or shins.

Worryingly, it only took a minute for Charlie to pick the lock.

Ava stumbled in first. The cell was small, dark and cold.

"Phoenix?"

"Ava?"

"Phoenix!" Light from the door flooded onto the small figure of a girl about Charlie's age. She was underfed and pale with terrified large eyes. A smaller version of Ava, Phoenix was heavily chained to a metal post in the centre of the floor.

"Ava, you came back!" Tears of relief flooded from both sisters' eyes.

"I promised I would." Ava dropped to her knees next to the small girl in rags, fighting to untie the chains. "Max, can you help?" Max dropped to his knees next to Ava, holding a blood-stained axe at the ready. Phoenix cringed away, a fearful cry escaping her lips. "It's OK, Phoenix, he's here to help." The celestial bronze easily cut through the chains and it wasn't long until Phoenix was free. Ava bundled her up and held her tightly, crying in relief and happiness.

Alvie noticed his older brother smiling at the two sisters reuniting and he couldn't help but be confused.

Max felt happy. Happier than he had been for a long time. Finally, he had done something right.

* * *

**Are we good? Anybody dying or wanting me to die? OWN UP- I think you're death threats are amusing :P **


	19. Explanations

"We should get back to the others." Alvie said quietly. "They might need help."

"Stab." Charlie smiled, holding up his bloody knife. Max gave a small smile and ruffled his cousin's hair.

"Alvie's right." Ava nodded, slowly standing up with her sister's fragile form in her arms.

"We'll get you out, Phoenix."

"And go home to Mommy?" Max saw the pain flare in Ava's eyes and her voice shook when she next spoke.

"Mommy's moved, remember?"

"Why?"

"She… she had to sleep."

"Where she go?" Phoenix asked quietly.

"The stars, Phoenix." Max put his hand on her shoulder. She shot him a sad, yet grateful look. "Come on, let's get you somewhere safe." Phoenix nodded and yawned, closing her eyes and drifting off to sleep in her sister's arms.

Alvie led the way out with Charlie at his side. The two stood side to side, relieved to see that Max's ice walls were still in place.

"Which way did we come?" Alvie asked, glancing over his shoulder at his brother.

"Uh, left." Max replied. "Keep Charlie with you." He told Alvie as he moved past, blood-stained axes in his hands. "Ava, in the middle." They obeyed and followed him in single file towards the ice wall on the left. Max jabbed the butt of his axe against the ice twice and it crumbled into large chunks. Worryingly, there was no onslaught waiting for them.

"Oh…" Charlie pulled a face.

"For a four year old, you're violent." Alvie told him, torn between smiling and running away from the twisted toddler wielding a bloody knife.

"Like Mama." Charlie smiled proudly.

"Definitely like your mama." Max rolled his eyes. He moved forward on light feet, walking at a steady and slow pace and scanning their surroundings. The others followed him just as silently.

They rounded a corner and found this one as disturbingly empty as the last.

"Where is everyone?" Ava whispered.

"Do you think the others are OK?"

"I've only seen Leo that angry once- nobody picks on his family." Max felt a pang of guilt at what he had tapped out in Morse code, but quickly pulled himself together. "Come on. Alvie, you got us here. Which way?"

"Um…" Alvie glanced around, looking at the doors, the corridors splitting off and the stairs. "We came down the stairs, didn't we?"

"Yeah. Blood on wall." Charlie said, pointing.

"Oh yeah."

"Follow the blood." Charlie smirked, looking and sounding devilish.

"Don't do that. Please don't do that."

"Why?"

"You're a strange child as it is. Don't need to be any more strange, thanks."

"Strange is good." Charlie argued. A distant explosion bought their conversation to an end and they all hurried up the stairs.

After a few minutes of twisting and turning through corridors and another flight of stairs, they found where all the enemies were. Dead or dying on the deck- peppered with arrows, a few with tridents jutting from their chests, mortal sword wounds or others screaming in agony as fire danced over them- the enemy hadn't been shown mercy.

Their family was clustered around the edge.

"Mama!" Charlie shouted, running forward. Louisa turned and looked relieved. She laughed when she saw Charlie's weapon and scooped him up. Leo quickly and carefully confiscated the knife from his son and chucked it over the edge. Charlie sat still in his mother's arms, listening for the splash. "Mama, we kick butt and find Ava sister. Look!" Charlie swivelled and pointed at Ava.

"Oh, that's where you went." Percy ran a hand through his hair. "You kids are worse than us."

"Sorry, Dad." Alvie mumbled, looking sheepish. Percy smiled.

"Alvie, don't worry. You're back now."

"You," Annabeth pointed at Ava, who instantly looked terrified, "have some serious explaining to do."

"Yes! It weren't us, Valdez."

"And you two have explaining to do as well." Annabeth said, rounding on the pair. "How the bloody hell did Luke get Charlie?"

"That's what we want to know." Leo replied, rubbing at the back of his neck awkwardly.

"I'm still trying to figure it out." Elsie admitted, glancing at her mother and smirking. "How did you let your favourite out of your sight?" Louisa glowered at her.

"Let's talk about this when we get home." Percy ordered lightly, raising his hands and calling a ceasefire. He had noticed Alvie was getting increasingly uncomfortable at the bodies around them. Sage had as well, taking her brother's hand and offering a reassuring smile.

* * *

Half an hour later, they were all at the Jacksons' residence. All injuries had been healed up by the Poseidon twins; Sophia and Vicky were relieved to see them all again, (Tobias teased his fiancée about her missing him); while the triplets and the Little Twins were ecstatic to see everyone again.

Sage and Charlie were asleep in the armchair, a fleecy blanket tucked in around them. Charlie had his head on his cousin's shoulder, but he fidgeted a lot. It was a miracle Sage hadn't woken up yet.

Tobias was sat on the floor with Alvie, the triplets and his children. He was making them smile and laugh with silly faces and play fights with Alvie.

Leo and Louisa were eating mint choc chip ice-cream while watching Max and Ava. The pair sat on the sofa, Phoenix nestled in Ava's arms and eating bacon sandwiches like no tomorrow.

"So?" Annabeth demanded. "What happened?" She was trying to mask a glare at Ava, but it wasn't working. "Why were you with Luke?" Ava glanced down at her little sister before looking back at Annabeth.

"I- I was at school that day. Mom was at home from work that day to look after Phoenix." Tears glistened in Ava's eyes. "I got home. Mom was just… she…" Annabeth rolled her hand, sympathy softening her glare. Ava seemed grateful for the skip, "And Phoenix was gone. I found this note with an address on it." Ava explained everything, watering it down for her little sister.

While she spoke, the memory played through her mind:

"_Mom, I'm home!" There was no response. "Mom? Phoenix?" Ava dropped her rucksack by the door and padded forward. "Mom?" She called again. Her mother was usually in the kitchen at this time, preparing dinner. _

_Her mother was in the kitchen, but there was no way she would prepare dinner ever again. _

_Lying in a pool of her own blood with a thick scarlet line splitting her stomach, Ava's mother lay in the foetal position. A scream broke through Ava's lips as she burst into tears. Her knees gave way and she curled up on the floor, holding her mother's cold and unresponsive hand as sobs racked through her body. _

_She had found the note an hour later. After crying until she had no tears left, sickness had settled in along with a pounding headache, Ava had managed to drag herself from the crime scene. The note was tacked to the back of the door. It read: _

If you wish to see your sister again, come to the following address within 48 hours. After that, she will resemble your mother in more than just looks.

_Ava scrounged for the money she could, shoving as many clothes and personal belongings in her rucksack and a sports bag as possible. _

_As she walked, she passed a police station. In her state of shock and grief, she managed to report her mother's murder, but she hid the note, needing it to find her sister. Then she ran. The policeman shouted after her, but she kept running, tears streaming. _

_The next few hours in the taxi were a blur of sobbing uncontrollably, worry about her sister and then a silent, staring and statue-like state where the world just passed by in blurs and incoherent noise. _

_At the address, she found a blonde man with a scarred face and a guy that looked like an evil Superman waiting for her outside the normal looking home. About a block away was the docks. She caught sight of a white cruise ship floating in the dock. _

"_Ava Shone." The blonde man smiled._

"_W- Who are you?" Ava's eyes flittered in fear from one man to the other. "Where's my sister?" _

"_Phoenix?" The Superman guy asked. He barked a cold laugh. Chills wormed down her spine and her fear grew. "Oh, she has her own little room all wretched brats deserve." _

"_But if you want her to live, come with us." The blonde sneered coldly. _

_Ava didn't see a way out of this. Too late, she realised, she should have copied the address and handed the note over. At least she could have had some police back-up. _

"_The police?" 'Superman' snickered. "What will those weak mortals do against us?" He lunged forward and grabbed her by the arm. _

"And then I found out about the whole Greek and Roman god thing. They let me see Phoenix, but she was only two. She didn't understand. That was the only time I saw her in the… the three years nearly we were there. I knew she was alive because they liked to threaten her life if I was late by seconds or the likes." Ava swallowed nervously. At that point, Phoenix had fallen asleep again.

"And how do you know Max?" Ava paled, shifting uncomfortably under Annabeth's demanding glare.

"They… they made me give him this potion Harvey made. It was so that they could control every move and word Max made and said. It wasn't the best of potions- it could have been made better." Annabeth's glare hardened and Ava faltered. "I meant… there were flaws with it. Max still had some control, like… like his choice to drink or…" She glanced uncertainly at his exposed wrists and started chewing her lip. "I never wanted to hurt anyone, but I couldn't risk Phoenix. She's all I've got left."

"Max?" Max just nodded. He had the ability to talk now, but his voice still eluded him.

"I'm so sorry." Ava said, her voice trembling. Tears fell onto her cheeks. Max wasn't sure if she was apologizing to him, his family or all of them. He couldn't make himself look at anyone.

* * *

Later, it was decided that Ava and Phoenix moved in with the Valdez lot. Ava could share a room with Elsie while Phoenix bunked with Charlie. Charlie seemed happy to have a new friend to play with, but it took a while to get across that Phoenix might be a bit shy and ill, in a way, for a little while.

"I help then." Charlie said simply. "Why she ill? What happened?"

"She's underfed and needs a nice place to stay. And she might be shy as well." Leo explained.

"But I is nice!" Charlie protested.

"Yes, but you're also hyperactive and noisy. She might not like that. You have to be nice and quiet for a bit until she's used to you."

"Oh. OK. I try."

"Good boy." Leo smiled. He glanced up, feeling eyes on him. Max was still sat on the sofa, watching him from the other side of the room. Leo pulled his army jacket tighter over his shoulders and busied himself with helping Charlie tie his laces.

He felt a hand on his shoulder.

"We know what happened, Leo." Louisa said quietly, picking up Charlie's other trainer and expertly untying the knots. "He didn't mean it." Leo didn't respond, double knotting Charlie's laces before taking the other trainer from his wife. Max may not have meant it, but what he said had hurt and was still hurting. "Try talkin' ta him."

"Later." Leo mumbled, fixing Charlie's shoe laces in another double knot before scooping the child up. "You two ready?" He asked Ava and Phoenix. The younger sister was wrapped in Ava's white cloak and bundled in Ava's arms. Ava nodded meekly. "Awesome. Let's go."

"Leo."

"Lou?"

"Are we gonna need a bigger car?" Leo froze in his steps and looked back at his wife before doing a quick headcount. He cursed in Spanish, making Louisa smile.

"I can hold Phoenix." Ava offered.

"I'll have ta hold Charlie then."

"Yay!" Charlie smiled. Leo nearly dropped his hyperactive son as Charlie bounced excitedly in his arms. Charlie held his hands out to his mama and Louisa took him from Leo, balancing him on her hip.

"Bigger car." Leo muttered, shaking his head. "Fine."

"You don't have to." Ava started.

"You're stuck with us now." Elsie smiled. "And it's not like you've got anywhere else to go, is it?" Ava sighed and miserably shook her head. Alokia gave a reassuring smile.

"Everything will be OK."


	20. Addiction

**I have a few guest reviews to reply to, but first of all- SOMEBODY STOLE MY NAME! WHY WOULD YOU STEAL MY NAME? A guest reviewer stole my Fanfiction name! And this is what they put: **I sound so fragile at the author's note at the end... **I AM NOT FRAGILE! Why are you stealing my name? It's MY name! Emphasis on **_**MY**_** name! **

**And to guest reviewer Sorry- Lou was just upset 'cos she feels like Reyna is moving in on Leo when he's at his weakest and it's annoying her big time. OK, so she came across as a bit bitchy, but she's just worried about Leo. **

**And to scenic97, I have two reviews to reply to for you. For the one on 'Parenthood', I felt like updating with the small idea that I had and it stemmed from what you said about Reyna having a 'dream' where Lou turned up. I know you said not to make her stay over, but I had the idea and they didn't do anything. Leo asked her to sleep on the sofa. Just put it as him not wanting to stay in an empty flat or needing help or something. It won't move too quickly, don't worry- I've got most of this planned. Lou wouldn't possess Leo; she's too 'nice' (heh, yeah sure, Lou). But I like the frying pan- it's a good weapon. And I'm going to a holiday park that has a small fairground that's loads of fun; it has a new circus which we're going to on Wednesday, I think, and then I'm going to annoy everybody while getting it all on camera (obviously)! Unfortunately, it's not in an apocalyptic state, so I won't get to have as much violent fun as I'd want to. **

**Now onto the long review on the sequel to Tobias's story- I think that's your longest review yet and to prove that I read it all, long reviews aren't annoying to read 'cos ones such as yours often contain constructive criticism. But starting at the beginning of that review, it is a bit weird to think that they are eighteen now, I agree- and I'm the writer. If I'm honest with you, I know three people my age- sixteen- who are mums already. In two years, gods know what will happen in my life. Personally, I don't want kids, they do my head in. Anyway, I might try and pull Lou slowly back into the stories, like a Lou VS Vicky thing 'cos that would be me VS my older sister in a way. And yes, she has an artistic side, but that does not mean it's her nice side. If she didn't eat the cake, her brother or Leo would have. With the car, I Googled latest cars out or something like that and the one I put in the story as Tobias's birthday pressie was the one I liked. And of course it's blue! Percy is still trying to get one up on his sister with the whole blue/red dilemma. Percy and Lou have a leisure centre 'cos it was a gift/team-building exercise from their dad when they turned 21- I might go into more detail with that at some point in some fic. They redesigned the whole thing and set all the rules and whatnot, but they don't want to open it to the public 'cos they're lazy. They're giving it to Tobias 'cos it's a better job occupation than the coffee shop. I don't know much about the American schooling system, but I do try. Year one would now be 5-6 year olds, yeah, but first years at Hogwarts would be the same age as our Year Sevens, which is the start of secondary school. We finish secondary school in Year 11 at the age of older 15-possibly younger 17 years old, and then we can go to college or sixth form- I think sixth form is more practical with smaller classes, which is for two years. Then we can go onto University if we want to. I had to Google 'nuances' as that's a new word and now I like that. It's weird but interesting this English thing- American and British versions. It's also a little confusing in places- it doesn't help that I'm British writing an American story and I have been told I use British slang sometimes. That's not my fault and I can't help it. Um, the triplets are… uh… in Tobias's first story they were two. In Max and Alvie's stories they're two-ish as well. I was working on their story, but it wasn't off to a good start so I put that on hold to go back to later. If I'm honest, I hadn't thought about Annabeth would feel with her youngest kids are roughly two or three years older than her first grandchildren- I might have to work on that. I think I've covered everything. Shout at me if I've missed something.**

* * *

During the few weeks following their rescue from Luke and Harvey's, Ava settled in fairly well with the Valdez family, but her little sister struggled, unused to so much company. And Charlie. She was _very_ unused to Charlie. Leo's protégée was insistent on making friends with Phoenix, even if the young girl squealed in terror whenever Charlie ran up to her in his hyperactive and noisy way, resulting in her running away and hiding behind her older sister's legs. Ava did her best for her sister, but Phoenix struggled with this adjustment in a major way.

She was the only one struggling, Ava noticed. Despite having his control back, Max suffered by just trying to get through day-to-day life. He went around school, apologizing to his friends, his teachers and all the girls he had hurt. Very few listened to him. Even fewer accepted.

This really hit Max. Hard. Ava was there for him to talk, but he didn't seem to want to. All he wanted to do was drown his sorrows out with a bottle or two of something strong and alcoholic. This was their only conflict.

"Max, just stop. Please." She begged. Max shook his head. "Why?" She despaired.

"I…" He started. "I- I can't…" He looked down in shame.

"Yes, you can." Ava persisted, clenching her fists stubbornly. Max sighed. "Look, we'll reduce what you drink bit by bit and you can stop like that, OK?" She studied him worriedly, wishing for him to look up. He didn't. He also didn't reply, his shoulders tense. "Come on, Max, you saved my sister. I have to pay you back somehow."

Max saw the sense in her words- he should stop drinking. He had tried before by cutting it off completely, but it had only ended in a bit of a mental breakdown. Following that, he downed three bottles of WKD, half a bottle of vodka and some Malibu before Percy found him.

Ava held his face in her hands and made him look at her. Max was finding it increasingly difficult to look away from those unusual, but beyond beautiful molten lava eyes.

"Guess we can try." He mumbled. She beamed in relief and pride and hugged him. "Mind the ribs, Ava."

* * *

Ava started by confiscating all hidden stashes of alcohol, much to Max's annoyance, but he had to go along with it, on 'pain of death' from his mother. Yes, his parents had been informed, who were eager to help, although neither of them approved of letting Max drink, even if it was to wean him off of it.

Max did try, but he could only fight one battle at a time.

Some of Kane's friends that had escaped being caught by the police the day of the crash were constantly making threats to Max. A knife had been pulled on him a handful of times in the streets. Max didn't really care and he didn't defend himself until thoughts of his family swarmed his mind, kick-starting his ADHD reflexes. During moments like these, he had become to rely on his demigodly instincts more often, constantly watching his back.

Following Kane's friends, there was always a girl in the school corridors that would suddenly be on the verge of tears if he glanced at them. Only one had listened to his apology, but was in two minds about it. The others didn't hang around long.

Then there were his friends who treated him like a bomb that could go off at any second. Max didn't hide his scars. He didn't care. But he had gained the nickname 'emo'.

Apart from Ava, his social life and any friendly relationships he had were smouldering tatters. His life at home was difficult- younger siblings and cousins were either scared, wary or (in Elsie's case) plotting his murder. It would be better if Ava was there, Max had thought, but the two sisters stayed at the Valdez residence as Max's parents didn't want any 'funny business'.

* * *

Two weeks into Ava's plan and Max was going mad. Following nights of horrendous and graphic nightmares, all of terrifying and gory deaths of his loved ones, Max couldn't take it anymore. He snuck a bottle of vodka from the kitchen, completely shredding Ava's plan to get him sober while also putting himself back in square one.

Max had to be more creative with his hidden stashes. His parents and Ava were always checking his bedroom, bags and locker. They seemed happy that Max wasn't storing any alcohol there.

Instead, Max hid his stashes in an old abandoned block of flats a short walk away from his home. The third floor was his hidey hole and he would stay there for as long as he wanted and just drink.

It was a gift and a curse.

While drunk, he could forget everything. Nothing mattered, nothing hurt and nothing could stop him cracking open another bottle.

With a hangover tearing his head in two, Max remembered everything. All the apologies he hadn't- couldn't make- they mattered. The scars, the terrified glances, the suddenly 'busy' relative or friend- they hurt. Guilt, shame, depression and the increasing pain in his stomach stopped him from opening another bottle, but only for a short while. It all became too much, resulting in the continuous cycle of this gift and this curse.

* * *

**Stopping there. Currently watching Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on TV (woo!) Slight warning- you will hate me… **


	21. Tobster and Maximus

**I am so nice, updating twice tonight! Although, this might be a short chapter, I'm not sure until I've typed it.**

* * *

Ava sighed, glancing at Max's empty seat beside her. He had been missing for over a week now. His family couldn't find him- not even Louisa- and the police were searching as best they could.

Ava couldn't help but feel guilty. Under the threat of her sister's death, Ava had been forced to give Max that potion. She had been forced to agree spending the rest of her life at Nick's beck and call while witnessing the terrors Max went through over the year. She hated herself for destroying Max's life, reducing it to next to nothing. His drinking problem was her fault.

The fire alarm blaring pulled her from her thoughts. Their teacher hurriedly directed them out, demanding them into orderly lines.

The students joined the masses of fellow students and they all filed out of the building and towards the playground.

Twenty minutes later, registers had been taken and the principal shouted for silence.

Ava glanced round at the students surrounding her. The college students were ten feet from her; Max's older brother, Tobias, amongst them. He looked exhausted, with shadows under his eyes. Somehow he was managing two jobs, impending fatherhood, college and nightly searches for his younger brother.

The fire alarm cut off. Everyone glanced at the school building.

"This was not a drill!" The principal shouted, standing on a low wall so he could be seen by everyone. "The alarm was set off deliberately! Whoever did it, I give you five minutes to own up! After that, we will not be as lenient with the punishment! We will be checking CCTV! FIVE MINUTES!" He repeated, scanning the crowds of students before him.

No-one owned up in those five minutes and the principal's frustration grew. "Five minutes is up!" He called. He made to continue when someone not fair from Ava screamed in warning, pointing up.

"Max!" Tobias's shout sent chills down Ava's spine and she looked up fearfully.

Max was on a window ledge on the fifth floor, staring down at them all. From this distance, Ava couldn't read his expression, but she saw Tobias shoving his way through. She hastily followed, Tobias ten steps ahead of her.

They darted down the corridors, up five flights of stairs and along another corridor. Tobias didn't even stop, but Ava, embarrassingly, had to, possessing nowhere as near as much stamina as Tobias.

When she caught up with him, he was shoving open all the doors, hastily looking for his brother. He disappeared into the second to last classroom in the west end of the hall. Ava followed, standing back hesitatingly as Tobias leaned out of the window.

"Go away, Tobias." Max pleaded.

"No, Max, I'm not leaving you. Come here."

"I said go away!"

"Max, please." Tobias put one foot up on the ledge, reaching out to his brother. Max cringed away, but he slipped. He cried out in panic and Ava screamed his name. Tobias ducked down, holding onto a vertical pipe next to the window.

"Let me go!"

"No." Tobias's voice was strained. "You're my brother. I'll never let you go. Not again."

"Please, Tobias." Max stared up at Tobias, his tone and eyes desperate and pleading. It couldn't have been clearer that Max had had enough. There was no more for him; no more that he cared about. No more for him to live for.

"I won't."

"Please. Just this. I don't ask for anything else."

"Not this, Max. We can help you." Max held his gaze. _Help me like this_. "What happened to Tobster and Maximus forever, huh?"

"We were kids. What does it matter?"

"We came up with that when we were kids. But it does matter, Max. You were always my brother, you always will be and nothing will change that."

"You can't help me, Tobias."

"I can. We can." Tobias corrected. "Give us the chance and we'll help you."

Max looked down at the ground. It was so inviting, such an easy option. He had tried before, but they hadn't worked. If- no, _when_ he fell, there was no saving him afterwards. There would be no pain afterwards, no more guilt and shame. It would all be over.

The bliss off that was surreal. No more hurting anyone. No more fear of his own shadow. No more terror at what was in store for him. No more Max.

Closing his eyes, Max felt a sense of freedom at that thought. No more Max. It sounded great.

Just one problem.

Tobias.

He wouldn't let go. Max didn't expect him to and he knew Tobias wouldn't. There was no way Tobias would live with himself if he let his own brother fall to his death.

_Tobster and Maximus_.

Childish names made as children. They had stuck though. Max remembered that day. He had been three, Tobias five. Alvie hadn't been born then, another week or so afterwards. He and Tobias had been playing forts with chairs, sheets and cushions, spending the whole day laughing, joking, playing, drawing and eating homemade blue cookies.

"_What are you drawing?" Tobias asked, scribbling in the sky with his favoured blue crayon._

"_Us." Tobias looked up quizzically. Max held up the drawing pad, proudly displaying the childish drawing of him and his brother, holding hands and smiling. Tobias grinned. _

"_Can I keep that?" _

"_Let me finish. And don't eat all cookies." Max told him, playfully hitting his brother's hand away from the plate of fresh blue chocolate chip cookies. "Silly Tobster." _

"_Silly Maximus." Tobias retorted, sticking his tongue out. "Hey, Tobster and Maximus forever?" It was Max's turn to grin. Tobias held his hand out and Max grasped it._

"_Tobster and Maximus forever." He confirmed._

"Max?" Max opened his eyes. He hadn't realised Tobias had been calling him until the panic had settled deeply in his brother's tone.

"Let me go." He repeated, his voice thick. He couldn't bring himself to look at Tobias.

"No." Tobias's own voice was thick and shaking with nerves and emotions. "I won't let you go. Not like this. Not ever." Max didn't respond, studying the students below him. They all looked stricken. The principal was on the phone to someone, staring up at Max. "What about the others?" Max looked at him then. "Alvie, Sage, Callum, Theo and Lilly. I can't tell them you…" Tobias steadied his breathing, his silver eyes glistening with torment. "What will they think?"

Max sighed. No more Max. It was still appealing.

_What will they think_?

It was still very appealing…

* * *

**And cliffy. **


	22. Is he safe?

**In reply to your review on 'Little brothers are so annoying', scenic97- no, it isn't one of those weird stories that I've never read where Poseidon time-travels into the future and takes Percy and Annabeth's baby. I am going off you people- MAJOR SPOILERS! Why do you do this to me?! I don't know about your reviews showing up a day late. The porridge scene probably reminded you of when Tobias threw his bowl on the floor in that 'Random one-shots' story of mine. I often think about describing the setting, but if you describe too much, so I've heard, the story eventually gets boring and I was just want to get on with it, but I might try a little bit, I don't know. Nice ghosts sounds by the way.**

**The following reviews are guest reviewers from 'Little brothers are so annoying'. I'm putting them on here so I don't forget to reply to them when I get back. **

**To guest reviewer Kylie Smith, no he's not Percy and Annabeth's kid. **

**To Guest, no his mum wasn't a demigod, but nice guess.**

**To another Guest (or same Guest, I'm not sure), Poseidon isn't disguised as Zach, but that's a really good idea. I mean, Poseidon did bring Zach to the doorstep of the Poseidon cabin, so unless he has a twin or a clone, then he is very good at this. **

**And if I don't reply to reviews, you will find me at the scene of 'Apocalyptic love'- let's see if I can get any more ideas for that…**

* * *

"Max, you're slipping." Tobias despaired, urgently tightening his grip on his brother's hand. Max looked down again before staring up at his brother.

"Please just let me go."

"Why?"

"You always said you'd make me happy. Let me go and I'll _be _happy."

"Really? You really think that?" Tobias shook his head. "You're mad."

"It's a nice way to be." Max mumbled, glancing down again. His eyes fixed on the floor and he tried to pull his hand from his brother's again. Tobias only held on tighter. "Let go." He said, a final pleading tone layering his tone. The ground looked increasingly inviting; the crowd of students shuffling nervously while staring up at him fearfully; the fall was nothing. He could do with the fall. The landing would kill him.

Smiling grimly, Max attempted tugging his hand from Tobias's for a third time. The grip Tobias held on him was painful and getting stronger.

"Max, if you go, I go too." Max's eyes shot up to his brother's and he saw that Tobias wasn't lying. His brother's stubborn streak was a mile wide and there was rarely any changing of his mind.

"No, Tobias- You can't-"

"I can." Tobias told him, his tone flat. "And I will, you know I will."

"You're guilt-tripping me."

"Gonna come up?"

"I don't want to, Tobias. I just want this over."

"Do you? Do you really?" Max nodded, looking down. "Look me in the eye and tell me that's what you want." Max forced himself to look up and meet his older brother's gaze once again.

"I…" Max's voice faltered. Tobias's eyes were no longer desperate or terrified for his brother. They were cold, hard and stony; studying him as if committing him to memory or furiously deciding the truth from the jumble that made Max up. "I… want to do this."

"You don't sound so sure." Tobias argued monotonously. "I know you, Max. This isn't what you want. You're just scared and you're hurting. Giving up now means that any chance of anything getting better is thrown down the drain."

"It won't get better."

"How'd you know?"

"Do you see it getting better?"

"Yes." Max was unsurprised by his brother's answer. "And I'll help you, I promise." Max focused on his brother's eyes once again. A sense of finality filled the air around them, sending chills over him. In his brother's eyes, he saw nothing but promise, loyalty and love, but also sheer terror and anxiety. "Come on, Max. Tobster and Maximus forever, side-by-side and never giving up. Not now and not ever."

The longing, the needing, the wanting- it was still there. But it had weakened at Tobias's last words. **(Not last **_**last**_** words- I'm not gonna kill Tobias, don't worry)**.

The relief on Tobias's face as Max bought his other hand up and strengthened the hold was incomparable and unbeatable by any other level of relief. Tobias quickly pulled Max up and the brothers collapsed on the floor. Ava hurriedly slammed the window shut and turned to greet Max when she stopped herself at what she saw.

Max was clinging to Tobias- his lifeline- shaking chronically with silent tears tumbling down his cheeks. Tobias was simply returning his brother's hug, his eyes closed while relief conquered his expression.

Half-sighing and half-laughing nervously, Tobias momentarily squashed his brother in his arms. "Don't you _ever_ do that again." Max didn't respond to that, closing his eyes and hiding his face in Tobias's shoulder. "Damn you, Max, damn you."

Ava quietly left the room as she heard footsteps in the corridors. She nearly collided with the principal, two policemen and two paramedics. She stopped them, much to the principal's annoyance.

"Tobias got him in. Just… just give Max a minute to calm down, please." She begged.

"Who's Tobias?" One of the policemen asked.

"His older brother." The principal muttered in reply. "Alright, but these won't hang around long."

"Thank you." Ava smiled at them before turning and checking on the brothers. Tobias glanced over his shoulder as she wandered in. Jerking his head, he beckoned her over. Ava padded forward silently, kneeling next to Tobias. She ran a hand through Max's hair before noticing Tobias's renewed worry. "What's the matter?" She mouthed.

"Yellow." He mouthed back. She frowned in confusion. He motioned at Max's hand. With horror and worry surging through her, Ava saw that Max's skin had a yellowish tinge to it.

"Max?" She said, abandoning all silent conversations. He didn't look up at the sound of her voice, still hiding away in his brother's arms.

"Who's outside?" Tobias asked quietly.

"The principal, some policemen and some paramedic guys."

"Get them."

"The paramedics?" Tobias nodded, fixing her with a steely glare that had her hurrying on with her task. She told the medics about Max's strange skin tone. They glanced at each other before one started asking her questions.

"Does he drink?"

"Um, yeah."

"How often?"

"Recently, I'm not sure. He's been missing for the last week. Before that, we were trying to wean him off of it."

"How long has he been drinking?" A pang of guilt flared in her chest, but she kept her expression neutral.

"About a year." The paramedics pushed past with their gear. Ava, the principal and the two policemen followed.

The paramedics were trying to get Max's attention, but Max didn't want to move away from his brother.

"Max, it's OK. They want to help you." Tobias assured. He looked up at the principal, a question on his lips.

"They're on their way."

"Who?" Max asked quietly, his voice muffled.

"Mom and Dad, hopefully." Max tensed.

"No." He said, turning his head to look up at his brother. "They'll be real mad, Tobias."

"No they won't." Tobias said, his tone finalising. Max knew not to argue back, but his panic was rising. His parents would be mad, wouldn't they? He had run away and disappeared for a week, broken all their attempts to get him sober and then this? They had to be mad at him.

It took fifteen minutes before Annabeth and Percy arrived. In that time, Max had calmed down a bit, but still wouldn't leave Tobias's comforting and familiar hold. Also, the paramedics had checked his vitals and were insistent on getting him to the hospital. The pain in his gut hurt like Hades and worse. In his confused state, he might have mentioned it to the paramedics, increasing their insistence to get him to the hospital _now_.

"Max!"

"Told you they wouldn't be mad." Tobias smirked cheekily, letting Max go and helping him to his feet. Annabeth and Percy embraced Max together as Tobias stepped back, smiling. His job was done.

"Oh, Max, you scared us." Annabeth ran a hand through his hair, kissing his forehead like she used to when he was younger. "I swear to the gods, if you do that again…" Annabeth didn't finish her threat, hugging him tightly and nearly breaking his ribs.

"You'll hug me." Max breathed. Percy chuckled and ruffled Max's hair before returning his arm back around his son's shoulders.

Annabeth held him at arm's length, her smile faltering at the grimace ruling behind his relieved smile and the yellowish tinge to his skin.

"What-?" She looked at the paramedics, cursing herself for not noticing the change before.

"We suspect he has chronic liver failure. We need to get him to the hospital as soon as possible for tests." Annabeth's eyes returned to Max, tears and worry anew in them. Max glanced down at his shoes miserably.

Damn his life…

* * *

**OK, that's it. I am not updating any more tonight on anything. I am going to chill and read. I've had, like, the busiest day EVER. I got up at seven so Mum and Dad could go to a boot fair while I stayed behind to watch the kids. I did the hoovering/vacuum cleaning; went through all the Fanfiction messages before Mum and Dad came home. I went with them afterwards, leaving one of my brothers in charge of the other kids for an hour at the most. We went to ASDA, Poundland and Wilkinson before coming home. Nan and Granddad came over for a bit. After they left, I mowed the lawn and then me, Dad and one brother went out to work on this big pond my dad wants down the end of the garden. We had to finish digging the trench around that, fill it with a layer of rocks, mix cement in a wheelbarrow with a shovel before tipping the cement in the trench and leaving that to dry or whatever. My brother was no help whatsoever, being such a complete IDIOT like he normally is. I am so tired… I haven't even packed for the holiday tomorrow… **

**Anyway, rant of my day over. Max is alive! I have been nice. But he's ill… me being not so nice… oh well, I'll guess you'll have to wait until next weekend for an update… *evil laugh***


	23. Recalling mistakes

**I'M BBBBAAAAAAAAAAACCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKK! Who missed me? **

**Anyway, I've got a few ideas bouncing around; let's just hope I can get them down. I also might be getting my GCSE results tomorrow (NERVOUS) but I love karma! I don't know if I've mentioned this in previous author's notes or what, but I know I've told a few people via PMs about this friend that's not so much of my friend anymore- anyway, she reckons she's top ten percent UK intelligence- with one B and nine C grades! I LOVE YOU KARMA! (And you Leo; don't worry… you haven't lost a fangirl). **

**I HAVE FINALLY SEEN SEA OF MONSTERS! AND IT HAD A FALL OUT BOY SONG IN! :D I won't say more though in case somebody hasn't seen it. **

**I think I'm going to update on Max's story now… any guest reviews on any stories I will try and reply to tomorrow- I've spent the last half an hour or so going through PMs and now I need story writing time with the big bag of crisps next to me. I know in the last chapter I put that the paramedics said that Max might have chronic liver failure, but I'm not sure if that'll be right. Max has been heavily drinking- like, seriously heavily drinking- for over a year, roughly- will that cause chronic liver failure? If not, just go with it. **

**Oh, one last thing- if you're looking for a one-shot or something to read, try 'You are a shrimp' by KeeperoftheYang.**

* * *

According to the doctors, Max had been a drink or two away from dying.

Not the best thing to tell a suicidal teen.

"Just one, Mom, please?"

"No, Max, you're not allowed." Annabeth replied stubbornly. Max had his own room in the hospital yet again and was once more on suicide watch.

"Please? I won't ask again."

"If I give you one, you'll want another and then another and it just won't work." Max groaned in frustration, flopping back against the pillows and running his hands over his face wearily. The morphine helped ease the pain in his gut but after a few hours, it would come back. The tests had been taken; doctors checked his vitals hourly and his morphine was replenished about an hour or so after it wore off, which didn't improve Max's mood.

There was also talk of an operation to help him. And counselling… apparently he needed counselling.

_I don't need bloody counselling- I need a goddamn drink._

The door opened, catching Max's attention. At first he didn't understand, but then he looked down. Lilly was staring up at him with tearful, sea green eyes while clutching her precious panda toy to her chest. Her bottom lip was wobbling, indicating she was on the verge of crying.

Lilly dropped her gaze and toddled miserably over to her mother. Annabeth lifted her onto Max's bed where Lilly got comfortable, curled against his side while using his shoulder as a pillow. Max had a feeling his little sister wouldn't budge from that spot for a while.

He was right.

Holding her panda out to him, she said: "Daddy talk to Aunty Lou. He says you nearly die." Max winced at the heartbreak in her tone. She sat the panda in his hand, her little hands gently curling his fingers around it. "I no want you to die." Lilly looked up into his eyes, fat tears welling and tumbling down her cheeks. Guilt slammed into him as he wrapped his arms around his little sister. She cried into his chest, sobs wracking her small frame. Annabeth was staring at him- _look what you've done_, she seemed to say, _think about what you can do._

Shifting his arms around Lilly into a more reassuring hug, Max looked down at the panda in his hand. His thoughts rambled to his other siblings. Up until recently, the triplets had been scared off him. Sage was monotonous towards him. Alvie's reactions hurt him the most. Max remembered making a silent promise to himself when he was old enough to understand Alvie's autism- _no-one hurts Alvie and gets away with it_. He remembered how he and Tobias had landed themselves in so many fights on Alvie's behalf, but neither of them cared. It took a while, but some of the bullies got the message. Alvie had looked up to them, idolising his elder brothers. Max recalled how proud he had felt during that time. Proud with himself for giving Alvie some hope in his life. Now he just hated himself. Alvie couldn't follow everything that had struck Max's life as well as the others. All he knew clearly that Max had tried to kill himself three times, drunk a lot of alcohol, hurt himself and called him a 'dumbass' like the other bullies.

Alvie used to cringe when Max went by. He would look away. He would leave. He would stay quiet around Max. He would have nothing to do with Max.

That's what hurt the most. He had gone from being Alvie's idol to his biggest worry and hurt.

_No-one hurts Alvie and gets away with it. _He had hurt Alvie. He had everybody, but they understood better. Alvie found it the majority of it confusing and complicated.

Max had hurt Alvie. And now, sitting in this hospital bed with a distraught sister crying her heart out in his arms, Max wasn't getting away with it.

The panda stared at him with those blank eyes.

_Come on, Max. If you won't do this for yourself, do it for them._

* * *

**OK, OK, this could have been better, but I only had ideas for the first bit and then some later on. I hope this OK.**

**And, um, other me… STOP STEALING MY NAME! **


	24. Talk

They thought he was asleep.

Instead, he kept his eyes shut and his breathing even to eavesdrop on the conversation going on between his parents and his doctor.

"He is going to need a liver transplant." The doctor told them solemnly. Max heard his mother's sharp intake of breath, visualising her eyes shining with tears. "Without it, he could die." Max picked then to be a good time to wake up. He made sure to look wearily and quizzically at his parents, sending the odd confused glance at the doctor.

The doctor repeated what he had told Annabeth and Percy. "The operation will take six to eight hours, including time in the anaesthetic room."

"I don't want it." Max told him. He got startled looks from all of them.

"You could die without it."

"I want to die anyway." Max said bluntly, aware of tears leaking down his mother's face. He didn't look round though, fixing the doctor with a sturdy glare.

"But-"

"Give it to someone who actually gives a toss about his life, OK? Don't waste it on me."

"Max, that's enough." Percy demanded sternly. Max would have argued back, but the steely edge in his father's tone kept him quiet. This was one of those rare of the rarest occasions were Percy hardened his voice towards one of his children.

"I'll give you some time to talk." The doctor muttered, leaving. Max didn't look round at his parents, reclining against the pillows and glaring blankly at the wall opposite. He was partially aware of Percy comforting Annabeth, but the wall was interesting enough for him at the moment. It didn't demand answers or glare back or give its orders out. It was just perfectly blank.

"Why?" Annabeth's croaky and tearful voice broke the silence. Max still didn't look round. He felt her take his hand, but he didn't make any registering movement.

Percy mumbled something to her in Ancient Greek. Annabeth glanced at him over her shoulder before nodding briefly. She squeezed Max's hand before she and Percy got up. Max started panicking as they left, his heart racing, but he couldn't bring himself to say anything.

His panic faded into guilt and a tremor of fear when Leo walked in. Instead of the cheeky, warm gleam that Leo normally had in his eyes, there was cold and hateful glare instead.

Leo took Percy's seat and folded his arms, holding Max's gaze. Max twisted his hands in the blanket nervously, wanting to look away from that icy glower but unable to do so.

"I'm sorry." Max's voice was barely above a whisper, trembling as much as he was. Leo's expression didn't change. Max lost hope and looked down at his buried hands as tears welled in his eyes.

Drawing his knees up to his chest and wrapping his arms around them, Max tried again. "I'm so sorry, Leo. I never wanted to hurt you or anyone else." He tried to blink away the tears, but they only fell. Leo's expression softened but he didn't say anything. Max put his forehead to his knees, trying to compose himself. He felt warm arms go around him, somebody's weight settling on his right. Max rested his head on Leo's shoulder. "I hate myself for hurting you guys." Max mumbled. "Especially you… you're such a nice guy and didn't deserve that." Leo still didn't speak and Max fell quiet, closing his eyes to listen to the steady beat of Leo's heart and just relax in his homely warmth.

"What about the operation?" Leo eventually asked. His tone was soft and friendly, but concerned all the same.

"I don't want it."

"Why?" Leo echoed Annabeth's question from earlier. Max just shook his head. Leo was quiet for a few seconds, removing one arm. The next thing Max knew, he had a toy panda in his face and Leo was talking in a playful, growly voice as if Max was four again. "What about us?" The 'panda' said.

"I'm sorry." Max told it, told Leo. The 'panda' tilted its head to the side, which Max took as quizzical. He didn't respond for a few seconds, mulling over the reply.

He found himself telling Leo everything. Leo was a good listener, not interrupting once. After all this time of his voice being controlled by another, the words rolled from his lips in a never-ending flow.

"And on that ledge…" Max's voice caught then, hoarse from talking solidly for twenty minutes. Leo hadn't talked or moved his arms away once until Max had trailed off.

"Would you have done it?" Max didn't need to think about it, nodding. "Why didn't you then?" Leo didn't sound harsh, just curious.

"I… I didn't 'cos… Tobias… he… he said if I went, he'd go too." Max looked up at his uncle. Leo's expression was mostly neutral, but there was a look of surprise in his eyes. Max was relieved to see that his eyes weren't foreign with coldness and hatred, but warm and loving once again. "Would he have done it?"

"You know what Tobias is like." Leo told him. "There's no changing his mind when he's said something that serious." Leo looked him in the eye. "Do you still feel like that?" Max didn't register the meaning of his question for a few seconds. _Do you still want to die?_

He nodded.

* * *

Leo had told Annabeth and Percy everything Max had told him. Max was relieved when neither of his parents quizzed him. They didn't mention the operation, they didn't pry for more information on his wish to die, nor did they talk about his worries. They simply talked and joked with him, trying to lighten his mood.

Max knew what they were trying to do. They wanted to pull him from the recesses of his depression and back to the living world.

They stayed with him for the last hour of visiting time before the doctor insisted that they went home.

Max lay back in his bed, staring up at the ceiling, holding the panda toy to his chest.

His mind whirred with everything today. His talk with Leo- mainly the fact that Leo had forgiven him- his parents after him, the doctor coming in every hour or so to check on him/ get him to talk.

He was still awake nearing midnight. His doctor dropped in once again. Seeing that he was awake, the doctor sighed. Max watched him carefully, expecting him to leave and get him something to make him sleep. Instead, the doctor pulled up a chair and sat on it backwards.

"What do you think of this operation then?" He asked.

"I don't want it." Max replied bluntly.

"Why?" Max hated that question. It annoyed the hell out of him and had been asked so often lately. He had told Leo everything earlier. He wished that Leo or his parents were here now. Just somebody familiar and comforting… that would be nice.

"Ever done or said something you can't take back?" Max asked him. The doctor nodded slowly. "Try that, but every day for a year with… two dozen people, maybe. More." The doctor winced. "I didn't mean to… that was the thing."

"Then why did you?"

"I had to."

"Was someone threatening you?"

"Not exactly…" Max twisted the blanket around his hands again. The doctor didn't force him to elaborate.

"Have you tried apologizing?" Max nodded. "And what happened then?"

"No-one but my family forgave me." Max thought of Elsie and Alvie. "Most of my family anyway…" He corrected miserably.

"And everyone else doesn't seem so keen on forgiving you?" Max gave a small nod of agreement, chewing his lip. "What about the self-harming?" Max winced at that term, clenching his hands into fists. "Was it for control or did you not know how else to express what you felt?"

"I… it… a bit of both…" Max stammered, his voice trembling. The doctor nodded. "I bet you think I'm a right nutcase." The doctor gave an amused smile.

"I've seen many _nutcases_ in the years that I've worked in hospitals. Don't worry, you're not the worst." Max felt an odd sense of relief at that. "Max…" The doctor started. "Listen, I've worked with kids your age and older, recovering alcoholics, who just wanted to give up. Most of the time, it was the lack of their addiction getting to them and driving them into thinking wild thoughts. That may not be the case with you and you actually want to… give up, but there are ways around things." The doctor rubbed the back of his neck, a thoughtful look crossing his features. "I can understand how so many people not forgiving you for something you did can hurt, but they're not as understanding as they could be about what you were going through."

"So… I've got to tell everybody my personal life and get dubbed the psychotic freak more than usual?"

"No." The doctor said firmly. "Give them something they can work with, not the full story. If they understand you, you can understand them and apologize and set things right." His pager beeped at him. "If you need or want to talk to me, just ask for Doctor Morrison, OK? I'll come and visit when I can."

"OK. Thank you." Morrison smiled at him before getting up and leaving.

* * *

**OK then, Max has talked to some people- his parents, Leo and Louisa (obviously) now know the full story and Max is POSSIBLY on the road to recovery… **

**Anyway, I'm a bit peed off with some things lately. Like this SOPA thing going around Fanfiction and so on- that has really annoyed me. I mean, think about all the writers on here that put endless amounts of their time into writing all these fanfictions for the enjoyment of anybody who wants to read them online. Plus, Fanfiction is a great way of making friends- some of you are on my Facebook (stalkers) but you're all crazy and fun to talk to. **

**Secondly, my older sister is now toeing the line between my lovely older sister and my mean older sister. Why? She has pre-ordered House of Hades for me, which is lovely (like me). The mean bit is she won't give it to me until Christmas, which is 114 days tomorrow. I'M NOT HAPPY! **


	25. Ava

**Sorry for not updating on this in ages, but my ideas are slowly running out… I do have some for future chapters, but I don't want to time-skip about three years while in the middle of Max's operation dilemma and blah blah blah.**

* * *

Doctor Morrison found ten minutes every day to come and talk to Max. Max appreciated that, but there was nothing Morrison could do to change his mind about this operation.

He didn't want and he doubted he ever would.

Max was supposed to relax and not do anything too strenuous, but he was ADHD. He hated sitting in his bed all day. He just wanted to get up, get out, get a drink… Well, they were keeping tabs on him. He wasn't allowed out of his room except for the bathroom and even then, he had someone accompany him to check the bathroom for anything sharp or medical and then stand outside. Max hated those people. He knew they were doing their job, but when they came out with boxes of medication and some razors, he had to fight urges to grab the lot and lock himself in the bathroom.

So he had his room to pace all day. The window was locked and unbreakable- he had tried- and he was watched 24/7 via CCTV and hourly check-ups from the doctors and nurses.

Right now, Max was sitting on his bed, his fingers digging into a bottle of water. He was having a hard time without a proper, alcoholic drink and those nightmares had returned and a drink was all he craved. He was aware that he was shaking, but had long given up trying to calm down. He focused himself on the second hand of the clock, counting down the time until visiting time.

His parents would be here soon. They would bring comics, DVDs, CDs, books, chocolate and sweets. They would probably bring a sibling or two. Or worse- Charlie.

He was surprised to see, that within ten minutes of visiting time starting, Ava had turned up. She hadn't visited him before. He looked past her but his parents didn't walk in.

"I'm alone." She told him, sitting on the end of his bed, facing him and crossing her arms over her chest. "Your parents will be here later. They had to run an errand."

"Where's Phoenix?" A flicker of a smile tugged at the corners of her lips.

"She has a play-date with Charlie."

"Ooh… good luck to her then." Ava gave a tight smile. Max didn't say anything else, reaching back for his pillow. His doctor had said it was better to hit that whenever he felt like it. Now was one of those times. He wasn't sure why. Maybe it was that accusatory look she wore, those molten lava eyes studying him so intently, he felt as if he was being taken apart and placed under her strict examination. "I take it you're here to lecture me as well then?" She bunched her jaw, her hands curling into fists.

"Sort of." She replied through gritted teeth. "Then you said that and now I am."

"Ugh…" Max smacked the pillow against his face, wishing he would suffocate. Ava wouldn't let him. He had tried before in the middle of the night but two doctors had run in and wrestled the pillow from him. He had tried to fight back as well, but they had sedated him. "Ava, I've had dozens of lectures. I don't need another one."

"Why not?"

"You all say the same thing." He growled before putting on a mock imitation of everyone that had spoken to him. "There's so much to live for, Max. You don't have to do this, Max. Don't give up, Max. Don't do this, Max. Don't do that, Max. Everything will work out, Max." Max clenched his hands in the pillow, feeling the muscles in his body tensing. Ava's eyes hardened. "I don't care anymore. Why don't you lot get that?"

"Because we care." Max gave a dry, sarcastic laugh and she glared at him, her eyes stirring as if they hummed with lava. "Don't do that."

"Why?" He challenged.

"Why do you think we come back every day? Why do you think Tobias pulled you up? Why your dad bought you up from drowning yourself? You're a stubborn git, Max, but we're not going to let you go."

"Well, tough." He snapped. "You can lecture me all you like, I don't give a damn! They can shove this poxy operation and just leave me."

"So that's it?" He looked at her. Her eyes were still burning angrily, but there was a glimmer of something else. Max didn't determine what it was as she looked away. "You don't see yourself finishing college or finding someone to settle down with? No future whatsoever?"

"No."

"Have you thought about it?"

"No."

"Why?"

"'Cos it doesn't matter."

"It's your life, Max. It does matter."

"Not anymore it doesn't."

"So, did you have plans before all of this?" Max paused. Did he have plans before all of this? He couldn't remember.

He looked down at his hands, his eyes scanning over the scars on his wrists.

The more he thought about, the more he remembered. He had planned on finishing college with all these sports he had participated in. Hopefully he could have carried on with his sports from there and end up on a famous team or something.

As for a family of his own…

He thought of Tobias, who was settling down with Sophia while awaiting the arrival of the Little Twins.

Max could have a life like that. Wife, kids, nice home, nice car, possibly a dog. He liked dogs. He had always wanted a Dalmatian, but with six siblings, that wasn't an easy task.

But as he thought about it more, he realised he couldn't wait years for that. In the future, he could possibly have something to live for, but now? Yeah, they told him he still had family and friends that cared about him, but he couldn't do it. It had to stop. He couldn't go on like this; broken, pained and damaged. Besides, what woman would want him? He was an emotional mess, an alcoholic who couldn't fight his addiction and somebody who just wanted to end it all now. Great boyfriend material…

It took him a few seconds to realise Ava was watching him. He looked up at her, hardening his expression and remaining cold and unresponsive. She met his gaze similarly. Max didn't want to be like this, but it saved him from having a mental breakdown in front of her. He couldn't handle that, so how the hell would she?

Ava cleared her throat pointedly. "You didn't answer my question. Did you have plans before this?" Max looked away briefly before meeting her gaze steadily.

"No."

* * *

Ava left soon after asking about plans. She hadn't given him a hug goodbye like his parents did and made no promise of returning. He just got an icy 'see you later'.

Morrison came in after that.

"Who was she?"

"Friend."

"Just a friend?" Max nodded as the doctor pulled up his chair and sat backwards on it, like he usually did. He was blonde with warm brown eyes and lightly tanned skin. He had a bit of a sense of humour, very morbid sometimes, but Max didn't expect any less from a doctor. "What did she want?"

"Just to give me another lecture."

"You should listen to them." Max clenched his jaw in irritation. "Hey, I know, you hate lectures and you've got your mind made up, but they're right." Morrison looked at where Ava had been sitting. "What's that?" He nodded at something at the end of Max's bed. Max looked at him quizzically before shifting forward and picking up an iPod with headphones attached. He switched it on and scrolled through the albums. Ava had dropped it probably. There were albums by Nickelback, Shinedown and a few others. Max didn't know Ava's preferred music, but he seemed curious that it was similar to his own.

Morrison stayed for five minutes, only leaving once Max's parents had turned up.

"Mom, Ava left this."

"Oh no, that's for you." Max frowned slightly in confusion. "She said there were songs on there that she wanted you to listen to." Max looked at the iPod before shrugging and shoving it under his pillow.

"Bought you doughnuts." Percy smiled, holding up a white box. Max took it and opened it. There were cakes, doughnuts, giant cookies. "I might have had a cookie…" Percy admitted.

"I did try to get it off of him, but it had bitten it and I didn't think you'd appreciate Seaweed Brain slobber over it."

* * *

**OK, that's all I've got at the moment. It's not brilliant 'cos I made it up on the spot, but I will try and plan the next few chapters, hopefully. Don't forget to vote! **


	26. Choo choo

**This isn't going to be a nice chapter. Well, not really, but anyway…**

* * *

Max had it all planned.

He was going to get out of this hospital if it killed him.

Not that he would mind if it killed him, but that wouldn't be part of his plan.

The operation was in two days. Being underage, Max had no choice in this and his parents had agreed for him to undergo this 'life-saving' deal. Max hadn't changed his mind and didn't want it. He didn't deserve it.

What he wanted- _badly needed_- was a drink. He had gone crazy not having one over the past few months. They thought he would be sober or close to sober by now, but it wasn't working. He couldn't blot anything out without it.

Max had figured out that the ceiling tiles in the bathroom could be lifted and he could climb through. He could figure out a way away from his room and hopefully towards the exit to get out of this goddamn place. He hated hospitals and living in one wasn't top of his to-do list. Heck, _living_ wasn't anywhere on his to-do list.

He waited, impatiently, as his doctor's assistant checked the bathroom. They came out with the usual bag of razors and medication before waving him in. Max tried to act casual, but he did rush in a bit. He just hoped it seemed that he really needed the loo.

Locking the door, Max looked around. He could climb on the toilet or edge of the bath. The ceiling was low, which was handy, and the tiles could easily be pushed up.

He draped his towel over the edge of the bath so that he wouldn't slip. He turned the taps on, so it seemed that he was running his bath. He put them on full-force. It could cause a flood, which would help as a distraction, but also alert the guy waiting outside. Max had seen him kick doors down to reach patients in trouble.

Pulling himself up on the edge, Max glanced at the door. He could see the shadow of the guy waiting outside shift through the gap under the door. He had to work quickly because there was only so much water he was supposed to have in the bath; the doctors fearing he would try to drown himself again.

He prodded at the tiles experimentally. It budged slightly. Max hooked his fingers around the edges and moved it aside. He pulled himself up with surprising ease, securing his footing and turning to replace the tile. It was as if he was never there.

Smiling grimly to himself, Max turned again and set off away from the bathroom. The sound of running water soon muffled and then he couldn't hear it. All he could hear was the hubbub of the hospital below him and the whirr of electricity in wires running all over the place.

He wasn't sure when he would get towards the main doors or if he could drop down without being caught. If that happened, he would have to run for it.

It was dusty up here, cobwebs stretching from ceiling to the upper ceiling (?) and around in every direction. He had to tread carefully as he did not want squashed spider on his sneakers or any crawling around in his hair.

After about half an hour of crawling through this limbo between ceilings, Max froze in his steps. All sound below had stopped, indicating he had reached a quiet spot of the hospital. He gingerly lifted a tile by his foot and did a quick survey. No-one passed by and he heard nothing. He lifted the tile more and jumped down. Pain flared in his ankle, but he ignored it, limping off. He did his best to brush any dust or cobwebs from his hair before pulling his cap from his pocket and slipping it on. He pulled his hood up as well and set off down the corridor.

They had to know he was gone by now, didn't they? That bath would be overflowing, nearly, and he wasn't allowed more than fifteen minutes in that bathroom. Had his 'bodyguard' kicked the door down or was he distracted by one of the nurses patrolling about?

Max glanced around the corner, pinned against the wall, and saw that the main reception was oddly quiet. The receptionist was working away on the computer while doctors and nurses exchanged notes and queries.

Steeling himself, Max took a step towards the exit, but had to duck back as the lift dinged open and his 'bodyguard' stumbled out, looking stricken. During Max's time here, his 'bodyguard', George, had grown on him. He was funny and flirty with the nurses, but he did his job to the best he could, keeping an eye on Max and his other clients. As far as Max knew, George hadn't let anyone out of his sight.

George ran straight up to the doctors and nurses and started jabbering away, waving his hands in the air in panic. They calmed him while a few of the doctors broke off to alert the receptionist.

Max gritted his teeth. He needed to get out before they spotted him.

He hid in a nearby janitor's closet until hurried footsteps resided. He counted to sixty and ducked out and ran for the door. People shouted after him, but he didn't slow down.

* * *

Max ran until his legs felt like Jell-O and the stitch in his side was roaring mercilessly. He couldn't stop though, shouts ringing in his ears and mingling with the blare of a distant horn, the screech of tyres, a sickening thud and then screams… just screams…

It all jumbled in his head. It felt like he was being torn in two and then had strips ripped from him. His ears rang painfully and the noises didn't stop.

He only stopped running when he tripped on a jagged slab of pavement. He stumbled, crashing into several people before falling to his knees. Breathing felt like fire searing his lungs and his vision blurred. Somebody was talking to him, their hand on his shoulder, but he couldn't hear anything over the screams.

Shaking off whoever had his hold on him, Max pushed himself to his feet and staggered away, forcing himself to run again. Now he didn't need to worry about the doctors or other hospital staff catching him, Max headed off towards his planned destination.

It took around fifteen minutes to get there and a further ten to find a back gate so he could sneak in without security wandering why he wasn't buying a ticket.

Max clambered up the mesh fence and vaulted over it. The pain in his ankle was almost disabling, but he soldiered on.

He heard the distant sound of wheels on the tracks and quickened his pace.

He had a train to catch. Damn his soul if he missed it…

* * *

Percy was out of the car faster than Annabeth could blink. They had been called to the hospital as Max had escaped somehow. The police had been informed and were looking for him already.

"Percy!" Annabeth called. She snatched up her anti-monster cell-phone and dialled Louisa's number. She shouted after her husband again, but Percy wasn't listening. He had answered the phone to the doctors and was in a right state, not having spoken or reacted to anything Annabeth had said to reassure him. Something had snapped in Percy, all his worry exploding to the surface. Nothing Annabeth said had any effect.

After explaining to Louisa what was going on and setting the daughter of Poseidon a search mission, Annabeth hurried after her husband. The doctors were just finishing telling Percy all they knew, as did the two police officers present. Percy didn't say anything to her, looking pale and panicked. Annabeth took his hand in a silent reassurance as her words fell on deaf ears. The doctors and the police repeated to her what they knew. One of the policeman's walkie-talkie buzzed and a voice crackled over it, static interfering. The policemen seemed to understand and they related to Annabeth and Percy what was going on.

"They may have spotted him running down the streets. He crashed into a few people and somebody had stopped to help him, but he ran again."

"Do you know where?"

"Our patrol cars are still searching for him." Annabeth glanced at her husband. He was chewing his lip nervously, his sea green eyes shimmering in thought. He was either piecing things together or asking for godly help or both.

"We'll look too." Annabeth told the officers, recognising that gleam in Percy's eyes. He knew something and was eager or desperate to act on it. They nodded at her and she dragged Percy out. Once they were in the car, she demanded to know what was going on. Percy just shook his head, switching the engine on and speeding off. "Percy, talk to me, please." She begged. He glanced at her briefly before U-turning and flooring the accelerator. Annabeth was grateful for her seatbelt. "Where's Max? I know you know; you've got that look."

Percy let out a ragged breath. Annabeth reached over and closed her fingers gently around his wrist.

"Max is trying again." And that was it. He didn't say another word.

* * *

They reached the train station in record time. They sprinted for the platform, hearing the chug of an oncoming train.

They saw Max, calmly standing on the tracks, staring directly at the train. The brakes were screeching and sparks were flying, but there was no way it could slow down now.

"Max!" Annabeth screamed. Max didn't respond, he didn't move- he didn't do anything. He just waited for his train.

Percy darted forward. Annabeth screamed after him as he jumped onto the tracks.

The train was two metres away. It flashed past, its horn blaring, drowning out her screams.

* * *

**I think that there is a nice cliffy. **


	27. Come on, Max, you can do it

**Aw, so many people shouting at me last night. You're so lovely.**

* * *

All Max could hear was the rush of wind as the train zoomed past. It was deafening and he cringed away from it. Distantly, he heard screaming, he heard the traitorous beating of his heart. It was freezing as the train whipped past, but somebody had their strong steady arms around him.

Silence suddenly reined and his ears rang. He opened his eyes to see his father's sea green ones studying him worriedly.

Max's chest tightened as he realised what he had done.

Percy could have died. Max had selfishly put his father at risk in an attempt to end his own life.

Images flickered through Max's mind, searing his eyes. He closed his eyes as they exploded through him.

His and Percy's joint funeral. Annabeth uncontrollable with sobs and grief, kneeling in the rain at the foot of the two freshly dug graves. Six siblings, fatherless. Sally without a son, Louisa without a brother. No more Max sounded brilliant, but no more Percy…

Max felt sick, his knees giving way. Percy held onto him, but Max didn't notice, blacking out.

* * *

When Max woke up, he was nestled in blankets and staring at the TV. Tom and Jerry was on. The triplets were sat in a semi-circle around it, Theo and Callum laughing at Jerry's antics while Lilly looked at Tom sympathetically.

Max tried to sit up, but his head swam and a wave of nausea slammed into him. A hand on his shoulder stilled him and he looked round meekly.

Over the past year and a half, Max had grown accustomed to Annabeth's stern glare or worried, pleading look. This look was different. Concerned, yet relieved, warm and motherly. He hadn't seen that look in a while.

"How are you feeling?"

"Where's Dad?" Annabeth glanced over her shoulder. Max pushed himself up, throwing aside the blankets and pushing his sickness to the back of his mind.

Percy was in the kitchen, making himself a coffee. He looked round when Max staggered in. "Dad…" Max tottered forward. Percy met him halfway and hugged him fiercely. He realised Max was shaking, but didn't say anything.

Max returned his father's hug, closing his eyes and breathing in that familiar and comforting sea scent that always lingered about Percy, relishing in that steady warmth Percy always provided. As a child, Max had always enjoyed Percy's hugs and it wasn't until today did Max realise how much he missed this simple thing.

_I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry…_ Max wasn't sure if he spoke out loud or he was apologizing uselessly in his mind. Not until Percy spoke.

"It's OK, Max."

"No… you… I…" Max couldn't breathe. He couldn't think straight. The only thing he found himself doing was holding onto his father, trying to regain control. He hated this. As much as his father's presence was a comfort, Max felt weak having to rely on his parents for the need of something as simple as a hug. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry…" Max found himself chanting again, as if it would make all the pain go away.

Nothing made the pain go away. He had spent months trying to escape the agony, but nothing had worked. Nothing was working.

* * *

Annabeth glanced at Max as she passed by. It had taken Percy nearly half an hour to calm him down. Max had fallen into an uneasy slumber minutes after Percy had settled him back on the sofa.

That was four hours ago. Max was still asleep, but obviously plagued by nightmares. She moved forward to wake him, but he woke himself, looking stricken and pale. Annabeth grabbed his shoulders to stop him from jumping up and dashing off on the hunt for his father.

"Calm down, Max. You're OK now." Max just shook his head, drawing his knees to his chest and wrapping his arms around them. Annabeth shifted closer, securing him in a hug. He was shaking chronically, resting his forehead against his knees.

"Three." He eventually said. Annabeth frowned slightly. "Three could have…" He trailed off, shaking his head. He looked up, but only so that his eyes were visible. "Alvie, Tobias, Dad… they could have died 'cos of me."

"Max, none of that's your fault." Max started to protest, but Annabeth cut across. "You didn't push Crystal. You were going to let her go, you said that yourself. You didn't make Alvie run across that road. You didn't make Tobias threaten to follow you if you fell. You didn't make Percy…" Annabeth's voice caught here. The Jackson children had grown up or were growing up hearing tales of demigod adventures. They knew about their parents' unrivalled fame. They had rescued Zeus's master bolt, retrieved the Golden Fleece, held the sky, survived the Labyrinth, saved Olympus (twice) and triumphed Tartarus. There was nothing their parents couldn't do. But one without the other… it was unheard of. "You didn't make Percy do what he did. It's in their blood to help and protect their loved ones."

"I can't do that."

"You can." Max shook his head. "You helped get Charlie back."

"We were all there."

"You saved Ava and Phoenix."

"Alvie and Charlie helped."

"You're not giving yourself credit for anything."

"Why should I?"

"Why shouldn't you?" Max looked at her. Annabeth held his gaze, as if telling him something.

"Mom…" Max heard the desperation in his voice, aware that tears were forming in his eyes. He couldn't take this anymore. "Mom… please help me." Annabeth smiled, holding his face in her hands. She kissed his forehead, reminding him of how she used to do that whenever he fell over as a child.

"As if I wasn't already."

"Wha-? What do I do?"

"Listen to me, first of all." Max watched her, desperate and pleading. "First of all, you're going to have that operation." He bit his lip to stop himself from protesting. Part of him didn't want that. But was that his stubborn streak biting back or was that him still willing to give in?

The other part of him wanted to sort this out so that it was right for everybody. Then, and only then, could he truly give himself credit for something.

* * *

**OK, they're both alive, no-one's going to kill me (hopefully) and I am now out of ideas again. So, suggestions anyone?**


	28. Hopes

**Some guest reviews, first of all:**

**To Guest 1- (there were, like, three Guests, so I don't know if you're the same person or what…) anyway… you can stop trying to kill me with caps lock now- Percy's alive. And Max is as well. I don't think you're too happy with that… **

**To Guest 2- monsters ripping Max's arm off so he can have a 'cool robotic one'… I'm not too sure what to think on that- it amuses me, but… **_**ripping someone's arm off?**_

**To Guest 3- Did you mean Max or Percy?**

**To MY NAME- hello Ava! Hope you don't mind me saying your first name like that, but HI! I'M TONI! (And no, it's not short for Antonia).**

**And to lil Miss Mysterious, who was too lazy to log in AGAIN- RUDE! And why did I do it? WHY NOT?! *evil laugh***

* * *

Liver transplant.

The words sent chills down Max's spine.

But he could see it was making his parents happy. It was making his family happy and Ava hadn't threatened him once. It was an achievement.

Percy and Annabeth were with him until he was put to sleep.

"We'll be here when you wake up, Maximus." Percy grinned.

"When's that?"

"In six to eight hours." Annabeth replied. "Just don't fidget in your sleep, like you normally do." Max smiled weakly, feeling drowsy already. Annabeth leant on the edge of his bed and kissed his forehead. Percy grinned at him and their smiles were the last thing he saw before he gave into his drowsiness.

* * *

Six to eight hours was a hell of a wait. Due to everybody in the Jackson family being ADHD, they had to leave Max, much to their reluctance, but there was no way they could all sit in the same place. The doctor was going to ring them to let them know when Max was out of theatre. It would take an hour or two before he woke up, so they had plenty of time to get back to him.

Ava could see their point, but she felt mean for leaving Max on his own, even if he was unconscious. What if he woke up early and they weren't there, as they had promised? Or what if something went wrong and they weren't there for him?

_Stop it, Ava. He'll be fine. _

She spent most her time sitting quietly, tending to Phoenix and praying to all the gods she could think of that Max's operation went well.

"Ava? You OK?" Ava glanced up and saw Elsie towering over her. Ava stood, Phoenix in her arms.

"I'm worried about Max." Elsie's expression remained blank, but there was a glower in her eyes. "You haven't forgiven him, have you?"

"He's hurt my family."

"It wasn't his fault."

"Yeah, I got that bit. But trust is fragile, Ava. It breaks once and it takes forever to repair."

"Not necessarily." Ava retorted, sharply. "He's still Max." Elsie clenched her jaw, silently disagreeing. "If you want to have a go at someone for hurting your family, have a go at me. I gave him that drink."

"You had no choice."

"Neither did he." That shut her up. Ava stomped past her, balancing Phoenix on her hip.

Charlie tottered over, looking up at her and Phoenix eagerly.

"Phoenix play now?" He asked innocently, holding Mythomagic figures. Ava jostled Phoenix lightly.

"Do you want to play with Charlie?" Charlie smiled warmly up at Phoenix, holding Poseidon's toy self out to her. Phoenix hesitated before warily reaching out for the toy.

"OK." She mumbled. Ava gently set her down, kneeling. She grabbed Charlie by the wrist gently.

"Nice playing, alright? She's still shy."

"Nice. Shy. Got it." Charlie beamed. He held his hand out to Phoenix, who looked back at Ava nervously.

"It's OK, Phoenix. He won't hurt you." Phoenix nodded, taking Charlie's hand and chewing her lip. Charlie smiled and led her away to play Mythomagic- courtesy of Unki Nico.

Ava watched the two wander off, sighing. She needed some air.

* * *

Half an hour later, Ava found herself in the park not far from the Valdez residence- her new home. She looked around at the trees, the other park-dwellers, the flowers, the birds and butterflies. She loved nature- how it looked in the different seasons, the animals, the landscapes- it was just so beautiful. No-one had tampered with it.

Walking slowly along the path, Ava took in everything around her that she could, breathing in the fresh air and blocking out the sounds of traffic and life only a mere hundred metres behind her.

The lake glistened fifty feet from her and she veered off the path and towards that.

She should bring Phoenix here. And Charlie. They could feed the ducks. _Or they could feed the geese_, Ava corrected, noticing the majority of water birds were geese.

_Max could come as well._

Ava wasn't sure where that thought had come from, but as she mulled over it, it sounded better and better. A walk in the park.

Unlike Nick, Max had made a lasting impression on her from one, brief meeting. She wasn't sure what it was or why. Yeah, he was hot and good-looking, but she had seen him differently before he had woken up. Asleep, he was innocent and child-like, happy and oblivious.

And he drooled in his sleep. **(Yes, I know).**

_Was he OK now? How was the operation going? _

Standing, Ava brushed the dry dirt from the seat of her jeans. She cast a final look across the lake before heading off up the gently sloping hill.

Reaching the top, she nearly collided with a pair on roller-skates. She made to shout out them before recognising the girl's silvery-blonde hair and the boy's nervous mumbles.

"Alvie and Crystal." The two looked round. Crystal grinned at her as she walked over.

"He is terrible at roller-skating." She smirked at him. Ava saw that Crystal had her hands on Alvie's arm. Was it to steady him or something more?

"Well, it's a good job he's got this on." Ava rapped her knuckles gently on Alvie's crash helmet. "How are you doing, Alvie?"

"Badly. I think I ate a bug."

"You did fall in a bush." Crystal snickered.

"You pushed me."

"Did not." She clamped a hand over his mouth before he could say anything else. "How are you doing?" She asked Ava.

Ava just shrugged.

"I'm worried about Max. There's so many 'what if's."

"Oh, not you as well." Crystal forcibly spun Alvie around and shoved him away, laughing. "He was the same." She nodded in Alvie's direction. He had grabbed onto a bench and stopped himself that way, looking back at her quizzically. "Girl talk. Go and skate." He shook his head, carefully and slowly working his way around the bench, always holding onto it. "Coward." She teased. "Anyway…" Crystal cast a sly look at Ava. "You and Max…" Ava glowered at her. "No, I'm just saying…" Crystal held her hands up innocently. "Alvie lives with him, poor guy, and said he picked up some weird… uh, how did he word it?" She mumbled. "Ugh, I'm going with vibes. He told me he picked up some weird vibes from Max that were only around when you were around Max."

"Vibes?"

"Alvie's psychic." Ava looked at her blankly. Crystal quickly and briefly explained. _"Anyway_," She stressed impatiently, "after telling me all this 'cos he's such an amazing friend-"

"You were being nosy."

"We figured Max likes you." Crystal finished, as if Ava hadn't spoken. "As in _likes_ you."

"Yes, I got that." Ava snapped, feeling heat rise in her cheeks.

"And you like him!" Crystal beamed.

"No, I- he's a friend!"

"Then why are you blush- I am taking after my mother…" Crystal turned sharply. "Alvie!" She called. She didn't get an immediate response. "Oy, ALVIE JACKSON!" Alvie looked round then. "We're going."

"Uh, no, don't think so." Ava grabbed Crystal's shoulders. "Did Alvie say anything to Max?"

"Pfft, no." Crystal smirked. "Why?"

"No reason." Ava let her go, trying not to blush, but failing miserably. Crystal's smirk turned triumphant, but she didn't say anymore, skating off to her friend and pulling him to his feet.

Ava watched them go. There was obviously some spark between the two friends. Alvie, being Alvie, was too shy. Crystal… Ava wasn't sure. She had only met Crystal a handful of times, but they had talked quite a bit during those few times. Crystal was difficult to understand. Always chopping and changing her mind or rambling on about one thing and then changing the subject suddenly and in mid-sentence. But Alvie had always been around somewhere.

Before she registered what her brain was doing, Ava wondered if Max would like at her like Alvie looked at Crystal.

* * *

**Just a small bit from Ava's point of view. Hope it's OK. And don't forget to vote! You have until tomorrow! PEACE! **


	29. Visits

**Again, sorry for not updating last night. Art had a bit of a mental breakdown and went and shot zombies heads off to relax. **

**That sounds weird.**

**Anyway, the poll has closed. Hopefully I can write that chapter for Tobias's sequel story soon. Right now, I am going to try and write up the diddy idea I had for Max's story.**

* * *

"Ugh…" Max opened his eyes groggily, suddenly aware of the throbbing pain in his stomach. He tried to sit up, but somebody put a hand on his shoulder.

"Sit still, Max. You'll tear your stitches." Looking up, Max saw his parents smiling kindly at him.

"Told you we'd be here when you woke up." Percy grinned.

"Thanks."

"How are you feeling?" Annabeth asked.

"Best sleep I've had in ages." Percy helped him sit up, but his head swam from the operation wound. "They done it all OK, yeah?"

"No, they put it in backwards."

"Seaweed Brain!"

"Yeah, it went OK."

"Would it be so much of a problem if they did put it in backwards though?" Percy shrugged, pulling a face.

Max caught a yawn in his hands and cast his eyes around the room.

There were no cameras.

He looked quizzically at his parents. Annabeth shrugged. Both of them were smiling.

Max wasn't on suicide watch. Was this his parents' doing?

He glanced around for a pitcher of water, noticing it was on the bedside table to his left. Bizarrely, there was a thin, rectangular package wrapped in deep blue paper propped up against it. He picked it up curiously and settled against his pillows, turning it in his hands carefully and studying it from all angles. There was no note.

"Tobias dropped it off before work. He'll be back later." Percy told him. Max tucked his fingers under a fold in the paper and tugged it open.

It was a simple, silver photo frame. Flipping it over, Max felt bewilderment wash over him.

Tobias had framed Max's childish drawing of Tobster and Maximus.

"He kept it." Max said quietly, dumbfounded and amazed.

"Of course he did." Percy smiled. Max could see the fold lines were Tobias had put it in his pocket all those years ago.

* * *

When Tobias visited later, Max couldn't have been happier. His parents had left a short while ago and Max had waited impatiently for his older brother to turn up.

"Maximus!" Tobias grinned, bounding forward with his arms out. Max laughed as Tobias crushed him in a hug. "How're you feeling?"

"Well, they gave me morphine, so better now." Max shifted over and Tobias sat on the bed next to him. "How was work?"

"Boring." Tobias replied honestly. "I was crazy-happy about coming over to see you, but work just _dragged_." Tobias pulled a face and Max snickered. "Hey, I talked to Alvie and guess what he and Crystal figured out?"

"Um…" Max wasn't sure he wanted to know. Crystal had her moments of being exceptionally nosy and her best friend's improving psychic skills only benefitted her.

"Apparently, Ava likes you and you like her." Max felt heat rise in his cheeks and Tobias smirked triumphantly.

"Passing interest." Max muttered.

"Mm-hm." Tobias still had that knowing smirk. Max glowered at him, but that only urged Tobias into laughter. "Oh, Max, your face!" Tobias dissolved into laughter again. Max punched him as best he could at this angle, but Tobias barely noticed, trying to stifle his laughter behind his hands. Max just sulked until Tobias calmed down.

"Better?" Max asked grouchily, his arms folded sulkily.

"So, what are you going to do?"

"About what?"

"Ava."

"Nothing!" Max hunched his shoulders. "You're so _annoying_!"

"That's what big brothers do." Tobias smiled. "So, answer my question."

"There's nothing to do."

"If you end up married five, ten years down the line, I'm gonna say it." Max looked at him quizzically. Tobias grinned."_I told you so_."

"And what makes you so sure we'll get married? Heck, Tobias, we're not even together." Oops. Slight slip up there. Tobias grabbed it with both hands.

"Oh, so you want to?"

"Do you have an off-switch?"

"You're avoiding the question."

"_You don't have an off-switch_."

"I'm gonna tell her."

"Don't you dare!"

"You're not denying it!" Tobias looked like a child at Christmas. Ecstatic, gleeful- yet triumphant.

"If I said I liked her, would you _shut up_?" Tobias nodded, grinning like the idiot he was. "Fine, I like her."

"And you're not saying that to shut me up?" Max hesitated, which was a long enough of a pause for Tobias to get the answer he wanted.

"Don't tell anyone." Max grumbled.

"I won't, unless you tell Ava before you leave this place." Max scowled.

"How am I related to you?"

"I seriously think I'm adopted." Tobias said, suddenly straight-faced and monotonous.

"But you're more like Dad than anyone."

"Then I'm a changeling. Or a clone."

"A human clone."

"Yes."

"I worry about you sometimes, Tobster." Tobias's grin returned and he ruffled Max's hair.

"Me too. The only difference is that I don't care." His grin broadened. "And that's the best part."

* * *

Max woke up to someone hissing his name. He looked around the semi-dark room, his eyes catching on a white blur moving towards him.

Panic surged through him and he sat up straight in a sudden movement. He stopped just as suddenly as pain burnt through his gut, adding to his alarm.

"Hey, ssh." The white figure reached his side. Ava dropped her hood and took his hand in both of hers.

Max couldn't breathe. "Oh gods, Max…" Ava mumbled. "It's OK, it's just me." She spoke soothingly, trying to quieten his panic attack. "You're OK, calm down."

It took a few minutes for him to calm down enough to draw a ragged breath. He looked relieved that he could breathe properly again; taking deep, steady breaths in an attempt to calm down.

"You… cow…" He scolded between breaths.

"I didn't mean to scare you."

"Not… scared…"

"Oh, sure." She said sarcastically. She waited until his breathing had levelled out and he looked less stricken. "Better?"

"I'm going off you."

"Just now? What about at the start of all this?" His eyes flickered in the semi-darkness of the room, as if he wanted to tell her something. He scooted over and she sat on the bed next to him. He mumbled something, but she didn't catch it. "What?"

"Nothing." He looked at her curiously, frowning slightly. "Why are you here?"

"To see you."

"There's a thing called _visiting hours_."

"But if I came then, I wouldn't have scared you." She smirked.

"You didn't… I wasn't scared. You… you could've killed me."

"And that's a bad thing?" Max didn't respond, thinking about his recent behaviour.

Ava sighed, running a hand through her auburn locks. Max curled his fingers in his blanket, wanting to do the same. "I didn't visit earlier, 'cos everyone else was there." She mumbled. "I just wanted to talk to you without your family or doctors eavesdropping." She plucked at her white cloak. "You don't like this, do you?"

"Considering I used to see you all the time when no-one else did, no, I don't like it."

"Oh yeah. Your _hallucinations_."

"You're a damn fine hallucination." Ava laughed softly.

"Is that how you get all the girls?" Max winced, but she wasn't looking.

"How did you get in?"

"Well, this cloak, whether you like it or not, is really cool." Max looked at her quizzically. "It can help the wearer faze through walls."

"Really?"

"Mm-hm. Magic and demigod technology combined. And it's really warm."

"In the summer?"

"And then it keeps me cool."

"Does it turn you invisible?"

"This is demigodly, not Harry bleeding Potter." Max grinned at her British accent. "What?"

"Nothing."

"You're grinning like the blooming Cheshire Cat. _What_?" Max just smiled and didn't answer. "Be like that then."

"I will."

"Git."

"You love me really."

"So says you." They fell into a comfortable silence. Ava shifted to get comfortable, but this wasn't exactly the roomiest of beds. Max had to grab her arm to stop her falling. "I'm OK." She mumbled as he pulled her back on the bed. She turned to look at him and saw that his face was inches from hers.

His silvery eyes were almost raven in the dim light of the room. His grey streak reflected the moonlight filtering through the blinds, the rest of his hair falling over his forehead and casting shadows across those sharp features of his face.

Max couldn't take his eyes away from hers. The lava colour had darkened to resemble glowing coals, but gods, they were beautiful. Her auburn hair was almost dark brown in the darkness, falling about her shoulders in soft curls.

Before he knew what he was doing, Max had curled a lock of her hair around his finger. She looked away, hoping that the darkness hid her blush.

"You said you came here to talk to me about something?" Max asked softly, studying the soft hair twirled around his finger.

"Um… nevermind." She mumbled. Max let her hair fall back and she quickly tucked it behind her ear. Her hands were shaking, but she hoped Max didn't notice. "I better go." She said quietly, getting up. She pulled her hood back up, Max's chest tightening at the action. Panic attacks. Him suffering a panic attack because of a stupid cloak.

She cast those molten lava eyes over him before bidding him goodnight quietly and leaving.

* * *

**So, some Avax or Mava, as Angel of Darkness will get you said. Although, I still think Avax sounds like Avox… **


	30. Some Mava Avax

**Damn, I haven't done anything on this in AGES! Dammit, Art, get a grip! **

**I have another song that is kind of Mava- Skillet **_**Better than Drugs**_**. Go and listen to it! :D**

* * *

Max was home. Nectar and ambrosia helped get him out of that hospital within a week following the operation. It still hurt, but not as much as it had when he had woken up.

All he had to do was relax and not do anything stupid. He had a new addiction- Angry Birds. It was so cool! He went through all the levels, listening to the music on Ava's iPod. Paying attention to some of the lyrics, he understood why she wanted him to listen to these songs. His favourite song at the moment was Three Days Grace _Animal I have become_. He kept chopping and changing his mind.

"Max!" He startled, looking over his shoulder warily. Tobias grinned at him. "Sup, bro?" Max rolled his eyes at his brother, removing his headphones. "Don't roll your eyes at me!" Tobias protested, wrapping his arms around Max's neck. "I'm the lovely Tobias!"

"You're crazy."

"I know, but it's fun." Tobias vaulted the sofa and collapsed in the seat next to Max. "So, sup bro?"

"Sup?"

"I'm asking you."

"Shut your face."

"I see you're an Angry Birds fan." Tobias pulled his phone from his pocket. "I bet I'm better than you." Max laughed challengingly.

"I doubt that." Tobias looked him up and down, pulling a face. "Don't do that." Tobias fixed his eyes on Max's defiantly, demanding a challenge. "You haven't had your ADHD stuff, have you?"

"I haven't for two months, but Soph only thinks it's three weeks." Tobias grinned cheekily. "Don't tell her." Max shook his head at his brother. "Hey, you said you were going to tell Ava before you left."

"No, you said that."

"Max…"

"Look, I left earlier than I thought I would and I… I couldn't… it's not easy!"

"Is too!" Tobias defied. He dropped his phone in his lap and held his hands out, grabbing an imaginary person's shoulders. When he spoke, he sounded like Max, scrunching his face up in mock frustration and shaking the invisible person. "Dammit, Ava, let me love you!" Max felt heat rise in his cheeks and smacked his brother. Tobias grinned, switching back to his normal voice. "Just ask her out for a coffee or something and-" His phone buzzed. Max breathed a sigh of relief, to which Tobias respond with a 'you cray-cray!' look, before answering the call. "Angel!" He beamed. "No, I'm with Max. He plays Angry Birds too!" Max had a mental image of Sophia rolling her eyes and smiled to himself. "He's not as good as me, obviously, but-" Sophia cut him off and his smile faltered slightly. "Oh gods. Alright, I'm on my way. Love you, angel." He cut off and looked at Max.

"Have you got to go?" Max's heart sunk. He hoped for an afternoon of Tobster and Maximus challenges, like the old days.

"Yeah…" Tobias pulled a face, but the brightened. "I'll try and come over tomorrow though. We could have the CSI marathon, remember?" Max smiled.

"Alright." Tobias ruffled his hair and got up, padding off to say bye to their parents.

Max watched his brother totter about, frowning slightly. Tobias seemed a bit… off. As if something was troubling him… Any other day, it would have been comical to see Tobias hopping about and pulling his trainers on, but Tobias's eyes flickered with pain. Only briefly, as he looked back up at Max and grinned broadly.

"See ya, Maximus."

"Bye, Tobster."

Less than a minute after Tobias had left; there was a knock on the door. Max hauled himself up, wincing slightly at the minor flare of pain in his stomach. He stumbled to the door and pulled it open, half expecting Tobias to be standing there- _I forgot my keys_.

But it wasn't Tobias. It was Ava.

"Hi." She smiled nervously. "How're you doing?"

"Angry Birds is awesome." She rolled her eyes, but was smiling. Max stood aside and let her in. "Why aren't you at school?"

"Couldn't be bothered."

"Huh. Fair enough. No Phoenix?"

"She and Charlie are playing with those Mythomagic toys." Max pushed the door closed and followed her to the sofa, sinking in his seat and retrieving his phone. "Hey, my iPod." She looked at him with those molten lava eyes. "Have you been listening to the songs?" Max nodded. "And? What did you think?"

_They were helpful- amusing, but slightly reassuring._

"They're good."

"Just good?" Max nodded, shifting and getting comfortable. Ava studied him for a few seconds, pursing her lips. Then she went to greet his parents.

"Hi, Ava!" Percy beamed. Annabeth hit his arm.

"You alright, Ava?"

"Hiya. Percy, have you had sugar?"

"We're making cookies!" Percy exclaimed childishly. "Want some?"

"Seaweed Brain, they're not even in the oven yet."

"I know, but it's the thought that counts." Annabeth rolled her eyes at her husband. "Is Max OK?" Percy asked, suddenly serious. Ava nodded. "He's quiet." Percy's eyes narrowed. "Are you sure he's OK?"

"He's fine. Playing Angry Birds." Percy relaxed slightly.

Ava left them to make cookies, Annabeth restraining herself from throttling her husband, and she returned to Max, who had lost himself in Angry Birds yet again. He was muttering to himself; it took a few seconds for her to realise he was singing to himself.

Max?

Singing?

Ava shook her head. _Madness_. "Max?" She called. He looked round. "Feel like going out?" He hesitated, glancing past her to check with his parents.

"Mom?" He shouted.

"What?"

"Can I go out?" There was a slight pause. "_Please_?" Max added hastily.

"Alright, just be careful. Ava, keep an eye on him, please."

"Will do." Ava moved forward and held her hand out to him, pulling him to his feet. "Come on then, I don't have all day." Max pulled a face at her, tucking his phone into his pocket. Ava shot him a challengingly look and he smiled meekly, grabbing his jacket and slipping his trainers on as they walked out. "How are you doing?" She repeated.

"Meh." Max replied. She grabbed his wrist as he slid his arms into his jacket and she pushed his sleeve back. Max stayed quiet, but she seemed relieved to see just the old scars and no new ones.

_Take her for a coffee_! Max's inner voice screamed. It sounded strangely like Tobias…

Max took a deep breathed and exhaled slowly. "Do… do you want to get a coffee or something?" She dropped his wrist and he was shocked at the suddenness of how he missed her warm touch. To distract himself, he shoved his hands in his pockets, hunching his shoulders. "So, um… how's things at the Valdezs?"

"It's OK. Elsie can be a bit…" Ava pulled a face. "But she's just sticking up for her family." Max sighed, sounding miserable. Ava looked at him and saw that maybe bringing up Elsie wasn't a good idea.

"She's not going to forgive me, is she?"

"I don't know, if I'm honest. Maybe if you work at it, she'll come round eventually." Max just nodded, studying the sidewalk. Ava bumped him with her shoulder, making him stagger. He looked at her, amused. "Listen, stop moping about and get out again. Do whatever the hell you want and get the old Max back, OK?"

"Yes ma'am." Ava smiled.

"Good. You're buying coffee." Max stuck his tongue out at her.

* * *

Over the next few months, things progressed between her and Max and they were going great. He was fully recovered from the operation and was back on track, returning to school and getting his grades back up slowly and mending relationships with friends and teachers alike. Ava was always there for him in case he felt a sudden need to detour away from his road to recovery.

Ava made sure to check on him every day, making sure he didn't do anything stupid. His texts were reassuring, but on a day out to the cinema with him, she spotted a scarlet line amongst the old scars. It took him a few seconds to figure out why she was glaring at him.

"I couldn't do anymore." He told her quietly. Ava's expression softened, much to his relief- those lava eyes were terrifying when she was angry.

"And the drink?" He shook his head.

"Tempted." He admitted. "But no."

"Nightmares?" He winced. Ava noticed the heavy rise and fall of his chest, recognising he was fighting off a panic attack. She took his hand and waited silently, patiently, until he calmed down. "Are you OK?" He nodded.

He didn't drop her hand as they worked their way through the crowds to reach the cinema. Ava didn't either, relishing in the fact that he didn't let go.

It was the next day that things went sour.

They were getting ready to go home from the cinema, when he got a text from an unknown number. He frowned as he read it. Ava curiously moved forward to read over his shoulder, but he locked the screen, concealing the message.

Her suspicions hit the roof and she snatched the phone from him before he could react. Max protested, but she held her hand up and sharply struck him in the chest, unlocking his phone.

Rage flooded through her as she read the text. Jealousy came a close second and she looked up to glower at him. Max looked sheepish.

"Who's Bethany?" She demanded, holding the phone in his face. He started chewing his lip. "On of your one-night stands?" The look on his face said it all. "You _idiot_." She snarled, slamming his phone into his chest. She turned on sharply on her heel and stormed off.

"Ava!" Max called after her, but she carried on stomping off. "Ava!" He said again, more desperate. There were hurried footsteps after her, but she broke into a run, turning into the market square and disappearing into the crowds. She was slighter than he was, squeezing through gaps in the swarm of shoppers that he would struggle through.

She didn't talk to him for the rest of the week.

* * *

**OK, I found my writing book that has a few chapters for Max's story in, so hopefully I can get a few updates up. This chapter isn't much, if I'm honest, more of a filler and the result of me trying to get over writer's block. I hope it's OK! If I missed any guest reviews, shout at me.**


	31. They know

Ava's phone buzzed again, dancing across the bedside table. She snatched it up and saw that Max was ringing her for the millionth time. She pressed 'ignore' and flopped back on her bed.

Having moved in with the Valdezs, she shared a room with Elsie and Alokia while Phoenix bunked with Charlie. Well, she was supposed to, but she often slept in Ava's bed for comfort.

"Who keeps ringing you?" Alokia asked, walking in with her arms full of library books. This girl did not stop reading and could challenge Alvie- and that was saying something.

"Nobody important." Ava grumbled. Alokia studied her with those deep, hazel eyes, obviously concerned. Ava was like another big sister to her; roughly the same age as Elsie.

Ava's phone buzzed again, this time saying she had a text.

Yup, it was Max.

Sighing, Ava rolled off her bed, grabbing her phone and stomping to the desk in the far corner of the room. She yanked the top drawer open, dropped the phone in and slammed it shut. Alokia was looking at her curiously. Ava plastered on a grin. "As I said- nobody important. What books have you got?" Ava took a step forward to study the books in Alokia's arms, but the younger girl took a step back. "What?"

"Don't change the subject." Alokia mumbled, looking annoyed yet worried for Ava. Sullenly, Ava folded her arms.

"Look, it doesn't matter. He's an idiot and I don't want idiots in my life."

"He?" Alokia frowned. "Max?" Ava's jaw clenched at his name, proving that Alokia was right. "What'd he do?"

"Oh, nothing." Ava spat sarcastically, twirling her hands in the air and turning on her heel. "Just got one of the school's biggest tarts pregnant following a drunken one-night stand." Alokia noticed the bitterness in her friend's tone, but was reeling from what she had been told.

"What's he doing about it?"

"I don't know." Alokia looked puzzled. "I'm not talking to him."

"Well, that's not very mature."

"I don't care about mature!" Ava snapped, startling Alokia and making her drop her books.

Elsie stormed in, getting right in Ava's face, squaring up to her.

"Don't you _dare_ shout at my sister 'cos of something that selfish prat has done!" She snarled. "Alokia was only trying to _help_!" Elsie gave Ava a harsh shove, making her stagger back.

Ava would have retaliated violently, but Leo rushed in before the fight started, ordering the two girls to stand either side of the room. He helped Ava gather her books, before demanding to know what had happened.

Elsie started speaking at the same time as Ava. Both of them were trying to talk over the other, accusations filling the air. It was seconds before they escalated into an increasingly heated argument.

It was Louisa who saved Leo and Alokia. Charlie and Phoenix were at her heels, like faithful little puppies.

"Enough!" Louisa ordered. Ava and Elsie grudgingly fell silent, glowering at each other. Louisa turned to her youngest daughter. "What happened, Kia?" She spoke kindly, but there was that air of authority about her, her Roman side. Alokia bit her lip, cautiously and nervously glancing at the two girls staring daggers at each other.

Alokia stumbled through what was going on, wringing her hands nervously and casting anxious glances at her sister and Ava.

Her parents were in a stunned silence when she finished talking. The whole room was deadly quiet and they could hear the buzz of Ava's phone in the drawer.

* * *

"Kitchen. Now." Annabeth ordered. She had that glower about her, that simmering anger, and Max knew he was in trouble. He got up and walked to the kitchen as casually as he could, but the feeling of his mother's glare on the back of his head did not help steel his nerves.

Percy was already in the kitchen, washing the dishes from lunch. He looked round as the kitchen door closed, his expression grim and thoughtful. There was no warm greeting, no cheeky smile or glitter of mischief in his eyes. Max felt like he was back in square one- back when everything was going horrifically wrong and there was nothing he could do about it, except make it worse.

Max looked at his mother. Her glower was still in place, strict and fiery, and her arms were folded, as if she was refraining from strangling him. "So, Max, who's Bethany?"

"Um…" He replied brilliantly. "Well…" Max briefed them, watering it down to make it less awkward. Annabeth's glare was as hard as diamond by the time he had finished. Percy didn't look too happy either, but he wasn't meeting Max's gaze, cleaning the counters.

"And what are you going to do about it?" Annabeth growled demandingly, her shoulders tense. Max just shrugged- not the best thing to do. Everyone at school knew how protective Bethany's father, Dave was of his 'precious daughter'. He would not let his daughter carry out a pregnancy and suffer through childbirth. And he would want to meet Max. Dave would rip his head off for 'befouling' his daughter and putting her future at risk.

Max's shrug pushed to the end of her tether. "You can't shrug something as serious as this off!" She raged. "You're part of it too and you can't let this Bethany go through with it alone!"

"Yes, I know that, but-"

"But what, Max? It's pretty obvious you don't care! I can't believe you were so stupid!"

"I wasn't stupid, I was drunk." Max frowned. "Tobias did the same thing."

"Max, don't." Percy's tone was flat, yet stern, making Max hold his tongue. "Tobias dealt with it and that wasn't a one-night stand." Percy sighed. "You need to sort this out somehow."

"Get on the phone to that Bethany and sort this out! I-Tobias…" Annabeth's tone and expression had suddenly gentled and she was staring past Max with concern and a sudden air about her as if she had to step on egg shells.

Max silently cursed himself. His older brother was settling down with his wife, Sophia, and their two kids, Finn and Darcy- aka, the Little Twins. Sophia wanted more children and Tobias would kill to make her happy. But something had happened and he was practically infertile and this was burdening him with a desire to make his wife happy, but stressing him immensely as he couldn't.

"What's going on?" Tobias asked. He sounded tired, monotonous. Let down. Recently, there were rare times when he seemed like himself- happy, hyper and huggable.

Annabeth demanded that Max told Tobias. Max didn't want to. This would crush Tobias, he could tell. He could see it now.

The words came out in a rush, as if he had lost control again. The small fragment of sanity he had left assured him otherwise, but that ebbed away as sheer, outright devastation became clear on Tobias's features.

Max couldn't hold Tobias's gaze for long. He looked down, shameful. Everything was supposed to be mending or going right now, but he was still hurting people.

A part of wasn't surprised when he heard the door open and close, indicating that his brother had left. That part of him also hurt for his brother, felt guilty for tormenting him like this.

The other part of him was piecing a plan together, giving him a shred of hope, of light, within the depressed recesses of his mind…

* * *

**OK, done. See, I've updated twice tonight on the same story! How cool is that? :D **


	32. Ava meets Bethany

Bethany was the most self-absorbed, annoying hypocritical fake cow Ava had ever had the displeasure to meet. Within five _seconds_ of meeting her, Ava wanted to strangle her.

She was so _sickening_. Ava felt physically sick every time Bethany batted her eyelashes at Max or put her hands on his arm or cuddling up to him constantly.

It was her voice that aggravated Ava the most. Horribly sweet and slightly high-pitched, posh and patronizing and she kept calling them 'darling' or 'sweetheart' or 'hun'.

Ava was only going through this torture because she didn't want Max ending up with _It_. Bethany was not a 'her' or 'Bethany'- she was a disgusting _It_.

Cringing at Bethany's obviously false laugh, Ava checked the clock and groaned in defeat. In the next hour and thirty eight minutes, Ava was going to shoot herself. Or, better yet, she could shoot Bethany.

_Stop it,_ she scolded herself_, Tobias and Sophia want this baby._

_OK, OK, after the baby. Make it look like an accident. _

Ava sent a murderous glare at Bethany, who was now sitting on Max's lap. _Very soon after the baby… very, __**very**__ soon…_

Bethany babbled away to Max, telling him about her week, but it was clear he wasn't listening, Ava noticed, his eyes having glazed over. She gained a small, smug smirk. Max's obliviousness to Bethany's babbling softened her temper and she slouched in her seat, studying Max. Despite wanting to beat him black and blue for being such an idiot, Ava constantly found herself admiring him from a distance. This was pretty much all she could do lately with It hanging around. Ava silently appreciated his build from years of demigod training, the windswept raven hair with the grey streak that seemed silver in the light. His silvery-grey eyes were almost black under the shade cast by his hair. He was wearing a long-sleeved black shirt under his sky blue T-shirt. Ava had noticed he was hiding the scars a lot again lately and was about to make a mental note to ask him why when she remembered she wasn't talking to him.

"I can't wait to meet your brother!" Bethany squealed, swirling around to look at Max. Her blonde hair flicked in his face, drawing his attention. "I mean, I know Tobias from school, kind of. He's such a darling!" Ava couldn't see Tobias approving of being called a 'darling'- it wasn't manly!

"Yeah, he's cool." Bethany turned to Ava.

"What about you, sweetheart? Any brothers or sisters?"

"Sister." Ava was determined to make as little eye contact and conversation as possible.

"Younger or older, hun?"

"Younger."

"How-?"

"Nearly five." Bethany studied her for a few seconds, frowning slightly. Ava could hear the cogs whirring in that cobweb riddled skull as Bethany tried to understand Ava's cold and partially hostile tone.

Bethany gave up after a while and turned back to Max, plastering on that grin that made Ava want to vomit. Max looked slightly pale, but he managed a smile back. It didn't reach his eyes.

"Sooo, when can I meet your brother?"

"At the weekend hopefully."

"I'll go and tell Daddy." Bethany rose and flounced out of the room.

"_I'll go and tell Daddy_." Ava mimicked cruelly, folding her arms crossly and hunching her shoulders. "Pompous, arrogant, self-centred hag." Max smiled at her; that amused, trouble-maker smile that made her heart flutter. She looked away, refusing to acknowledge him whenever he was paying attention. "You could have done better." She muttered angrily.

"Like who?"

_Me, hopefully_. Ava wanted to say.

"Anyone. People like that thing are for desperate situations only." Max chuckled. Ava still refused to look at him.

"Am I getting the silent treatment again?" She didn't reply. "That's a 'yes' then." She glowered at him. Max had fallen silent, his eyes on Bethany as she walked back in.

* * *

It was 'baby this' and 'baby that' and Ava wished she could quickly and quietly _bury Bethany alive_.

But she could see how the prospect of this baby made Tobias and Sophia happy. Max was happy that he was doing something right by his brother and Ava realised she would have to be happy for them as well…

Ava was sitting on the floor with Tobias and the Little Twins, playing with the building blocks. Bethany was curled up to Max on the sofa.

At some point during her sulk, Tobias left with the Little Twins on an ice-cream run. Ava bitterly hurled the blocks back into the tub.

"Ava?" Ava looked round. Sophia was watching her concernedly, holding her coffee and Ava's. They went in the kitchen, Sophia closing the door with her hip. "Don't you like Bethany?" She asked softly. Ava felt her anger rise in her chest and it burst out in a heated whisper.

"No! She's an uptight bitch! She's lording this goddamn kid over my head and prides herself for having a hold on Max!"

"What has she said?"

"It's how she acts mainly. She snaps her fingers and Max goes running! And he said he didn't care, the bloody idiot…" Ava looked down at her coffee, her hand trembling in anger.

She felt her other emotions welling and her anger ebbed away. Her eyes stung. "It's like I'm not even there." Sophia put her coffee on the side and put her arm around Ava in a sisterly fashion. Ava pulled her sleeve over her hand and wiped her eyes stubbornly. "I can't… I can't help but think this is my fault…"

"Why?" Sophia quizzed gently.

"I gave Max that potion and he started drinking. I know Bethany wasn't the only girl, but what if she's not the only pregnant one?"

"Well, no-one else has come forward."

"And that worries me." Ava was aware of tears falling down her cheeks, but she left them. "All those girls… he could have kids and not know it. Their parents could have forced them to get rid of the babies and the girls would be upset about that and struggling to cope…" Sophia got her some kitchen roll and Ava mumbled her thanks.

"It's not your fault. You had no choice, on pain of death of your sister." Sophia reasoned. "You and Phoenix would still be in that hellhole if you didn't have some sort of connection to Max. And no Max would mean no-one to rescue you."

"Luke kidnapped Charlie."

"Yes, but Max knew you. He extended that rescue." Sighing, Ava looked down at her coffee. "You're jealous of Bethany." Sophia stated. Ava noted a hint of triumph in Sophia's tone and felt her anger flood back.

"I am not!"

"You are." Sophia smirked. "She demands Max's attention and she's getting an immediate response every time, right?" Ava nodded, her anger fading again. Sophia hugged her. "If you like him so much, get his attention."

"How?"

"Drop hints. I know men can be a bit typical- Tobias mainly- but they can't be completely stupid."

"So… what do I say?"

"Organise things for you both to do." Sophia suggested, referring to Max and Ava's outings that had not occurred for over a month now. Not since Ava found out about Bethany. "Cinema trip or something. Do some sneaky flirting and when you feel ready," Sophia dug her fingers into Ava's shoulders, not hurting her, "grab him and make him yours."

"Did you do that with Tobias?" Ava had to ask. Sophia rolled her eyes, but she was smiling.

"Possibly." Ava smirked knowingly at her. "OK, he started it." Ava's smirk turned triumphant and she wiped at her eyes. She took a few, deep calming breaths, feeling her head clear. She stood at her full height and braced her shoulders. Sophia beamed at her. "Good girl. I'll make you a fresh coffee."

The look on Max's face when Ava walked back into the room, smiling at him. Ava knew he was used to her glaring at him whenever Bethany was around, also used to the silent treatment. He noticed Bethany was as confused as he was, but she didn't say anything. Ava sat in her chair and casually started talking to Max and Sophia, who was sitting in Tobias's armchair, her legs curled beneath her.

There was tension in the air, but Ava paid it no attention, just talking as easily and as merrily as she could. Max stared at her as if she was from another planet, but they were distracted by Tobias returning with Finn and Darcy.

"Ice-cream for everybody!" He beamed. Ava turned in her seat and saw him holding up a carrier bag full of ice-cream tubs. The Little Twins toddled to Sophia, who set her coffee on the table and scooped them up onto her lap.

"Ice-cream!" Finn told her, pointing at Tobias.

"Yummy!" Darcy added, smiling broadly. Tobias interrupted by wandering over and stooping to kiss Sophia in greeting.

"Got your favourite, angel."

"Good." Sophia hooked her arms around her children and rose, Tobias holding her elbow to balance her. They disappeared into the kitchen and Ava heard them talking quietly. Was Sophia telling Tobias what Ava had told her?

* * *

Three months down the line, Ava was trudging up the stairs with Max and Bethany in tow, on the way to Tobias and Sophia's place. The lift was down and Ava silently relished in Bethany complaining about walking up the stairs.

Bethany was six months gone and they had recently left the hospital from Bethany's baby scan.

Ava's smile faltered. She had sat in the room with Max and Bethany and was thoroughly annoyed at Bethany grabbing Max's hand while she had the scan. Ava hadn't said anything, glaring at the back of Max's head, hoping to burn common sense into that stupid kelp head of his.

An image flickered behind Ava's eyes and instead of seeing Bethany excited for a baby scan and holding Max's hand, Ava saw herself. She shook her head. _Don't be stupid, Ava. _

Sophia opened the door and Bethany was instantly waving the scan photo in her face.

"Look!" Sophia had to grab Bethany's wrist to have a look at the photo.

"Did you find out what it is?"

"It's a girl." Bethany beamed.

"Tobias!" Sophia called, waving them in.

"Mm!" They all looked round and saw Tobias rambling out of the kitchen, carrying the cookie jar and munching on three.

"You haven't given Finn or Darcy any, have you?" He nodded, looking pleased with himself. "How many?" He held up two fingers. "Each?" He gave another nod, working his way through his mouthful. Sophia muttered a curse and beckoned him over. "Look. Bethany said it was a girl." Tobias finished his mouthful and grinned.

"Tobiasette." He poked the picture gently.

"Tobiasette?" Sophia frowned. Ava saw Max smiling and she realised this was an old joke between the brothers.

"When Elsie was born, she didn't get a name for ages. When we first saw her, I said we should call her Tobiasette."

"Tobiasette." Sophia repeated slowly. "How old were you?"

"Two… ish. You got a better idea?" He gave his trademark, cocky smirk. Sophia folded her arms defiantly.

"Obviously." Ava glanced at Max and saw he was quite happily watching Tobias and Sophia play-fight. When she looked back, she saw that Tobias was rubbing at his stomach and frowning sulkily and childishly. Sophia had taken his cookie jar. Apparently, Tobias hadn't had his ADHD stuff, but he had had sugar.

Tobias wandered off and Sophia took the cookie jar to the kitchen. Ava turned and saw Max staring at her. She frowned slightly and his eyes cleared. He blinked a couple of times, before biting his lip and looking away. Bethany caught his attention and held the scan photo in his face.

"What'd you want to call her?" Ava's frown deepened and she saw Max's shoulders tensed. Max didn't say anything, trying to process what's going on.

"Um, aren't Tobias and Sophia having this baby?" Ava asked, stepping forward.

"Well, yeah, but…"

"But nothing. Tobias and Sophia are doing everything they can to organise for this baby, to make you happy, to pay you for everything. You just want this baby so you can power-trip Max and for the money. If you do anything- _anything_- to hurt them," Ava pointed behind her in Tobias and Sophia's general directions, "we are going to have some serious issues and you won't like it, trust me on that." Max was staring at Ava, dumbfounded, but she didn't pay him any attention, glowering at Bethany.

Bethany had fallen silent, pale and staring at Ava fearfully.

"I was…"

"Shutting up and leaving everything to do with this baby to Tobias and Sophia. Is that clear?" Bethany nodded meekly. "Good. Don't make me tell you twice." Ava stalked off, moving towards the playpen. She saw Tobias picking Finn up, Darcy holding her hands up to him for attention. Ava scooped her out, smiling at the infant. "They're so sweet." She said, balancing Darcy in Tobias's free arm.

"They've got damn good genes. How are you doing?" She shrugged, her smile fading. Tobias looked in the direction her glare went- Bethany. Bethany was still pale, but was obviously trying to get herself back in order by flirting with Max, her hand around his arm. "Girl issues?" She looked back at him and saw him smirking.

"He's so oblivious."

"That's Max for you." Tobias looked down at Finn and Darcy, who were asleep against his chest, Finn drooling. Ava followed him to the nursery and helped settle the infants in their cots. "So, what are you going to do?" She glared at him, willing him to be quiet, but he didn't seem to understand that. "Come on, Ava." He pleaded. When he next spoke, it was in quiet mumbles. "If I'm honest, I don't like Bethany. I know she's helping us, but she's so… so…" He pulled a face. Ava smiled, relief flooding her. So, she _wasn't_ being paranoid.

"Tell me about it."

"I am." He grinned.

"Tobias, can you drive Vicky home?" Sophia walked in.

"Sure." He bounced towards her, hugging her and mumbling something that Ava didn't hear. Sophia nodded and kissed him lightly, shooing him out.

"So, what are you going to do?" Ava glowered at her repeating Tobias's question with that cheeky smirk. She felt heat rise in her cheeks, folding her arms. "Oh, come on, Ava." Sophia sighed. Ava recognised the desperation in Sophia's tone. "Do something about it, woman!" Darcy muttered, rolling onto her side. Sophia waved Ava out of the room. "Remember our plan."

"I know, I know." Ava insisted. "But whenever I try, it seems he has to go out to please her royal highness." Ava glared at Bethany again. Her and Max were sat on the sofa. Ava glowered at how comfortable and smug Bethany looked curled up to Max. She was beaming that sickeningly sweet smile at him, batting her false eyelashes. "Look at her… stupid bimbo…" Ava didn't look at Sophia, but guessed that her friend was smiling. "I really want to slap that smug-ass smirk off her ugly face, but she's pregnant." The word tasted foul in Ava's mouth and she realised she had said it with as much hatred as she could muster.

"Couple more months and this will all be over." Sophia assured. "We'll pay her and let her get on with her life. She can see the baby if she wants to, but I don't particularly like how she flirts with Tobias."

"She flirts with Tobias?" Ava asked, feeling astounded. "Really? It's Max or his older married brother." She paused, hesitating slightly. "Tobias doesn't like her." Sophia smiled thinly.

"I'm real grateful that's she's helping, but she makes a move on my husband and she's dead meat."

"I love it when you make threats." Ava smiled. "Oh, did you know she asked Max what does he want to name the baby?" Various emotions played across Sophia's features- anger, annoyance, despair. Ava felt bad for bringing it up, but she felt like Sophia had to know.

"We've already picked a name."

"Have you?"

"No, but if she asks, we have."

"What if she asks what it is?"

"It's a surprise." Sophia gave a sly smile, her eyes shining cunningly.

* * *

**And done. I hope this is OK! Sorry it's not really from Max's point of view, but I had this idea from Ava's point of view and at least it's still an update. **

**Questions- **

**If you could be any character from the Percy Jackson world, who would you be and why? OCs aren't included. **

**And if you could be any one of my OCs, who and why?**


	33. Jealousy

**Another thing to do with my OCs- pick one and ask them any question you want, as long as it's not rude or anything. I'll try and get them to answer in character and- Tobias, **_**put the cookie jar down**_**!**

* * *

Max didn't understand girls. They were so confusing! One minute, Ava was smiling and joking around with him, like she used before the whole Bethany-is-pregnant dilemma. The next minute, she was glaring at him with that look that told him she was plotting his painful and bloody murder.

His phone rang and he groaned in defeat.

Bethany was easy to understand. He was only there when she wanted something. He was in half a mind to switch his phone off, but _you can't say no to a pregnant woman_.

Scowling, Max sat up and snatched his phone up, taking a deep breath and speaking as normal as possible.

"Hi, Bethany, what's up?"

"I was wondering if you could run out and get me some ice-cream, darling." Max clenched his jaw. That was like saying '_Go out and get me ice-cream, peasant_'.

"Yeah, sure- Ben and Jerry's?"

"You got it, sweetheart." He got a mental image of that horrible, stomach-curling smile she also had on whenever he was around.

"Yeah. Be there in a few." He hung up and made to drop his phone on the bedside table. "It'll be easier to just break it." He muttered. Bethany rang, on average, five times _a day_.

His phone started ringing again and he nearly threw it at the wall, but saw Ava's caller ID. Relief swept through him, along with curiosity and wariness- was she ringing up to say she had planned his murder and to watch his back from now?

"Dammit, Max, you take forever to answer."

"I _was_ going to throw my phone at the wall."

"Oh, why? Saw it was me ringing, did you?" Her tone was bitter and Max could see those molten lava eyes of hers flashing angrily.

"No. Bethany wants me to go out and get her ice-cream."

"Ugh, don't. Tell her to get off her fat ass."

"Ava…"

"I don't care."

"I was actually going to say d'you want to come with me?"

"To buy ice-cream for my mortal enemy? Are you crazy?"

"Mm-hm." He hummed. Ava remained silent for a few seconds.

"OK. But only if I can bring Phoenix."

"And me!" Charlie's voice sounded in the background and Max smiled.

"And Charlie."

"Yeah, sure. The more the merrier."

"And the less chance of talking to Queen Hag." Max laughed.

"Is that what you call her?"

"Oh, I've got harsher names, but children present." Max snickered. "I'll meet you at the shop in ten." She hung up, not giving him the chance to reply. Max chucked his phone aside and jumped up, grabbing his baseball jacket from the hook on the back of his bedroom door.

"Mom, I got to run an errand!" He called, running downstairs.

"Is it that Bethany again?" Max hesitated. His mom didn't approve of him running around like crazy after Bethany- he didn't either, but _you can't say no to a pregnant woman_. "Max, just switch the phone off or something. She's got her money-bags dad to get everything she wants."

"What have you got to get her this time?" Percy asked from where he was sat at the table, attempting to help Alvie through his biology homework.

"Ice-cream."

"Get her least favourite ice-cream." Percy grinned wickedly.

"Oopsie." Max smirked, pulling on his trainers. Percy cleared his throat pointedly. Max held up his keys, shaking them in reply, before leaving.

He got to the local mini-mart way before Ava, Phoenix and Charlie and even had time to buy Bethany's ice-cream. When he was done, he was attacked by his cousin the second he walked out the door. "Hey Charlie." Max grinned, lifting Charlie easily by the back of his coat and setting the smaller boy on his shoulders.

"Did you get me ice-cream?"

"You've had some!" Ava protested, a laughing gleam in her eyes.

"Max don't know that." Charlie replied innocently.

"I do know. Hey Phoenix." Max smiled warmly at Ava's sister. She gave a timid smile back, hiding behind her sister's legs slightly, her small fingers curled around Ava's. The sisters wore matching green duffel coats, their auburn hair fashioned into French plaits. They both wore jeans and black Ugg boots, wrapped up against the late autumn/ early winter cold. Charlie was wearing his army fatigue jacket, courtesy of his father, and Batman wellies.

They started walking, Phoenix reaching up to take Max's hand, the bag of ice-cream looped around his wrist. His other hand was holding Charlie's ankle- if he dropped Charlie, his aunt would kill him so slowly and so painfully, the Fields of Punishment would be Elysium in comparison.

"Ava said we go see Queen Hag." Ava looked pleased with herself, her eyes glittering triumphantly. "I don't think she likes Queen Hag."

"No, she doesn't." Phoenix looked up at her sister, squeezing Ava's hand. Ava squeezed Phoenix's hand lightly in retaliation, smiling.

Max studied Ava, noticing a curl of hair fell from her plait, tickling her jawline. She didn't notice, talking with her sister, her molten lava eyes glowing happily. Charlie was humming to himself, picking through Max's hair. That was the only problem with carrying Charlie- due to his current fascination with monkeys, Charlie would often pick through their hair in search of bugs.

As they drew closer to Bethany's place, Ava's smile faltered and she fell into a sulky silence. Phoenix noticed and grew worried for her sister. Max set Charlie down and Charlie toddled around Phoenix, disentangling her from Ava.

"Tag!" He beamed. Phoenix protested and ran after him.

"Phoenix! Charlie!" Ava called. The pair stayed in sight, running in a circle and dodging around each other.

"They're alright." Max assured. "You didn't have to come if you didn't want to."

"No. It's OK." She shot him a funny look, as if imagining him as putty in her hands. "I don't trust her around you." Max frowned slightly in confusion.

"Why?"

"Well, considering she's got you wrapped around her little finger-" Max started to protest, but she glowered at him for interrupting and he fell silent. "She's a cow, she flirts with your married brother, she's a cow, she's Queen Hag, she's a cow, she tries to make plans for the baby and-"

"She's a cow?" Max guessed, smirking in amusement. Ava nodded seriously. "Yeah, I got that bit. I didn't know she flirted with Tobias though. I mean, she flirts with me and that's just horrible, but- was that a smug look? You're smirking!"

"Shut up, Max!"

"Why are you smirking?"

"I'm not."

"Well, you're not now. You look like you want to kill me."

"And when don't I?" Ava shouted for Charlie and Phoenix as they stopped at the base of the steps leading up to Bethany's place. "Let's make this quick. I can't be bothered to sit there and listen to '_Ooh, Max, you're so funny, darling_!'" She said in a cruel, yet accurate imitation of Bethany. Max snickered and rang the doorbell, Charlie colliding with the back of his legs and laughing like the lunatic he was.

Bethany answered.

"Did you get my ice-cream, hun?" She beamed. Ava saw Charlie cringe, hiding behind Max's legs. Charlie was a people person, more than his parents by far, but if he was cringing at Bethany, then all was well.

Max held the bag up. "Aw, thanks sweetheart!" Bethany noticed Charlie and Phoenix and cooed. "Oh my god, they're so cute!" Charlie stumbled down the steps backwards, which wasn't his best idea. Ava caught him and it was then that Bethany noticed her. That horrible, sickeningly sweet smile faltered into a cold, withering look. Ava met Bethany's gaze fiercely, Max saw, the fire in her eyes scorching Bethany into looking away.

Bethany's false smile returned and she invited them in.

"Oh, we can't." Ava said shortly, before Max could say anything. "We're taking these two to the park to feed the geese." Max looked at her curiously.

_Feed the geese?_ He mouthed, his back to Bethany. Ava gave a small nod.

"Oh. OK. Bye Max." Bethany kissed him on the cheek and disappeared back in her house. Max hurriedly wiped his cheek, but saw Ava… if looks could kill…

"Feed the geese?" He asked.

"There were more geese than ducks." She muttered, turning her back on him, holding Charlie and Phoenix by the hands. "Come on, you two. Max is going to buy us bread for the geese."

* * *

Charlie didn't feed the geese. He attacked the geese with squashed up bits of bread, cheering 'Fifty points!' every time he hit a goose in the head.

"Charlie, they don't like that." Max laughed. Charlie didn't pay attention, pointing excitedly at the bit of bread that had landed on a goose's back and stayed there.

"Hundred points!" He beamed.

Phoenix was a bit nicer to the geese, throwing the bits of bread in front of them instead of at them. She scolded Charlie, which made Max and Ava laugh, but Charlie didn't listen, pelting the geese continuously with bread. "Charlie, you fall in! Or they get you!" Charlie looked at Phoenix with an easy smile.

"They no do that. I Charlie Valdez and everybody love da Valdez."

"Oh gods, that's Leo." Max chuckled. "Charlie, don't take lessons from your dad. It's not a good thing."

"You just jealous that you not awesome like me and Daddy."

"OK, Charlie, whatever you say." Max sat back on the slope. "Just get away from the edge, 'cos I don't think you'll be so awesome if you fell in." Charlie backed up a few paces, standing next to Phoenix.

Max looked at Ava, who was sat next to him, her legs curled beneath her. She was watching the four year olds, wary of anything that could happen to them. She hadn't talked to him since leaving Bethany's and he felt her glare on him whenever he wasn't looking. When he looked at her, she point blank refused to meet his gaze. "Ava." He called quietly. She ignored him. Max reached out and prodded her shoulder. "Don't ignore me, Ava."

"What'd you want?" Her tone was cold and harsh and she still didn't look at him.

"To talk."

"I don't feel like talking."

"Why?"

"Why'd you think?" She shot back through gritted teeth.

"Look, I'm sorry, OK, but I didn't ask her to do that." She didn't reply. "I wiped it off." Max tried. She scowled.

"And that makes everything OK, does it?"

"Why are you so upset about it? She doesn't mean anything!"

"Oh, I bet she didn't _mean anything_ that night you decided to sleep with her!"

"I messed up, I get it. But-"

"But nothing, Max. This conversation is over." She got up and carefully stumbled down the hill towards her sister and Charlie.

* * *

By the time they reached the Valdez residence, Max decided to make it official- girls were the most awkward and confusing creatures known to man.

"Ava-" She made to shut the door in his face, but he stuck his foot out, blocking the door. "Ava, can we just talk?"

"No." She was putting her weight against the door, but Max was a lot heavier and managed to budge the door open in one, quick movement. He grabbed her by the wrist and dragged her out, closing the door behind her. She snatched her hand away instantly, glaring at him intensely. "I said no!" She hissed.

"You don't have a choice." Max retorted.

"You're not the boss of me!" She spat.

"I just want to sort this out!"

"I don't care!"

"Yes you do. You wouldn't kick off otherwise."

"So what? You've got _precious Bethany_. Go back to her and that stupid baby." She barged past Max as Leo opened the door to see what was going on. He stood aside as she stormed past.

"What's going on?"

"Ugh, I don't know. Women don't make sense." Leo gave an emphatic smile.

"It gets easier as you get older, trust me on that one."

"Stupid boys and their stupid… ugh, _stupid_!" Ava punched her pillow. "Stupid, uncomfortable pillow…" She muttered. "Stupid boys, stupid hags, stupid, stupid, stupid…"

"That's a lot of 'stupid's for one person." Ava glanced round and saw Louisa leaning in the doorway.

"There's a lot of 'stupid' in this world."

"Mm, true that." Louisa looked at her curiously. "So, who's stupid?"

"Boys."

"Boys are stupid. Throw rocks at them." Louisa gave a nod, before looking back at her seriously. "There's a book called that."

"Really?" Louisa nodded.

"I'll see if I can get it for ya."

"You don't have to."

"It's that or a punchin' bag with Max's face on."

"How'd you-?"

"Ya can't hide stuff from me." Louisa smirked. "What happened this time then?" Ava fumed, glaring at her pillow, imagining Max's face there. That punching bag sounded tempting for times like this when she had to deal with his idiocy.

She told Louisa everything, even though she knew Louisa didn't really like getting involved in other people's love lives- that was Piper's job, as far as she was concerned. Other people's love lives were only interesting if it was something like, say, Romeo and Juliet.

"And he doesn't seem to understand that that hag has her filthy claws in him and-"

"Ya wanna smack him in the face for bein' so stupid?" Ava nodded, clenching and unclenching her fists. "Boys always needed sense whacked inta them."

"We do not." Leo appeared and he sounded offended, but there was a cheeky gleam in his eyes. "Boy trouble?" He asked Ava.

"Idiot trouble, more like." Ava grumbled.

"I told her she should hit him."

"Yes, I heard." Leo sighed, rolling his eyes. Louisa punched his shoulder. "Violence doesn't solve everything, chica."

"It does now."

* * *

Later, Ava was still sulking on her bed, hugging her pillow to her chest and grumbling 'stupid idiot boy' every now and then. Damn Max for making things so complicated! What was it with him? Bethany's flirting was obvious and he had said so himself that he didn't like it, so why did he sit through it all instead of telling Bethany he wasn't interested?

_He better not be interested._

_Ava, he's probably being nice so he doesn't spoil Tobias and Sophia's chances of getting that baby._

_Knowing Bethany, it's probably not even his. _

_It is. You added the dates up yourself._

_Shut up, brain. I hate you._ Her stomach growled.

_But you don't hate me! Get up and get me food! _

_No. Can't be bothered._

_Why don't you ring Max and see if he'll come running?_

_I told you to shut up, brain! _

_But_-

"Shut up." Ava said aloud. She was going crazy, talking to herself, but damn, things didn't make sense much anymore. First gods and demigods and monsters and then stupid idiot boys and- ugh! WHY WAS LIFE SO COMPLICATED?

Sighing, she rolled onto her side and attempted to go to sleep.

* * *

"Pick up, pick up, pick up, stupid older brother of mine…"

"I heard that."

"So?"

"I might just hang up."

"I'll ring you back."

"I'll break my phone."

"Soph won't be happy with you."

"Meh. What's the matter, Maximus?" Max sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Oh, is that that 'girl trouble' sigh again?"

"You know me so well." Max told him everything, expressing his confusion towards the female species. Tobias laughed when he had finished. "It's not funny and you're not helping!"

"Dude, she likes you!"

"She wants to _kill me_!"

"If a girl wants to kill you, she likes you."

"That makes no sense."

"You said it yourself though- girls don't make sense."

"What do I do?"

"Bethany's due in, like, three weeks. Wait until then, tell her to shove off, take Ava on a romantic dinner for two and _tell her how much you hate her."_ Tobias finished in King Julian's voice. **(Madagascar). **

"You're not helping."

"Am I supposed to?"

"Tobias, give me the phone."

"No, it's my phone. Max rang me."

"You have no idea of how to get a girl's attention." Max heard his brother splutter in protest.

"_Valentine's day_!" He argued.

"Ooh, one day. Well done." Sophia teased sarcastically. A few seconds later, she was on the phone. "Hey, Max."

"I thought you didn't like me."

"I don't like you, but it's less of a dislike than it originally was." Yes, female species- confusing. "I'm doing this for Ava. Don't tell her how much you hate her…"

"Ow! What are you hitting me for, woman?!"

"You deserved it."

"Domestic abuse!"

"Shut up, Jackson."

"Max is witness!"

"Jackson!"

"Do you want me to ring back later?" Max interrupted.

"No, we're going to talk and- Tobias, put that back."

"Say sorry." Tobias's voice was muffled.

"I'm sorry, now please put the expensive vase back." Sophia didn't sound very apologetic- more concerned for the vase.

"Like you mean it."

"I'm trying to help your brother! Put the vase down and go and check on the Little Twins!"

"You should be an Amazon." Max told her. Sophia laughed softly.

"Tobias said that this morning when he tried to steal my breakfast. Anyway, we're getting off topic. You are going to arrange a day where you and Ava go out. No Bethany, no family, no friends, no nothing. Just you two."

"Right…"

"Do a picnic or something. Make it romantic; buy her flowers and her favourite chocolates. Don't say anything about Bethany or us or the baby, just talk with her about normal stuff, like you used to do before this all kicked off. Keep her happy, don't fight and don't stress her out or push her into doing anything she doesn't want to."

"I wouldn't-"

"I'm not finished!" Sophia said firmly. Max fell quiet, praising his brother's bravery for taking this woman on. "Find somewhere quiet and kiss her or something. Mistletoe."

"Mistletoe?"

"Yeah. That stuff is great for getting in sneaky kisses."

"And you know this _because_…?" Max teased, drawing out the last word.

"Oh, you're just like Tobias!" Sophia cried. "Jackson, talk to your brother! I'm not talking to him anymore." There was a whoosh of air as she threw the cell phone to her husband.

"What'd he say?" Sophia didn't answer. "Max, what did you say?"

"I asked how she knew to use mistletoe to get in 'sneaky kisses' as she called them."

"Oh, she learnt that from me."

"You sly dog."

"I know right? Oohh, she's glaring at me. You've got me in trouble!" Tobias hissed. "You owe me cookies now."

"Yeah, OK, whatever."

"Ha, bye Maximus."

"Bye Tobster." Tobias hung up. Max dialled Ava's number instantly. It rang a few times, but was diverted to voicemail. She had seen who was ringing and didn't want to talk to him. Sighing, Max texted her.

_I'm trying to be nice here. Gimme a chance, please? Xxx _

_Last chance, Max. _

Max smiled to himself. _Last chance_… he could handle that, right? He only needed to organise a date and kiss her at the end of it. Piece of cake.

* * *

**And done. This was all made up on the spot and this is the tenth page! Feeling really pleased with myself! **

**And OMGS HOUSE OF HADES IS SO COOL I CAN'T BREATHE! I WANT TO RANT ABOUT WHAT'S GOING ON, BUT I CAN'T GIVE SPOILERS! FRANK IN VENICE… THEN NICO… LEO… OH MY GODS… **

**Don't forget you can ask a question to any one of my OCs, as long as it's not rude or anything. **


	34. Date-not-date thing Part 1

**OK, I'm going to try with that date-not-date thing Sophia and Max were talking about in the last chapter. Don't forget, you can still ask an OC a question! I had a question from AthenaGirl823:**

_**Elsie, on a scale of one to ten, how violent are you compared to Louisa? **_

**Elsie:****On a scale of one to ten, how violent am I compared to Mom? Is that a trick question? DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW VIOLENT SHE IS? I'm, like, one in comparison, she is that bad... and she's glaring at me. Bye :)**

**Any question, any OC, any time. Go for it! **

**And there may be a little bit that's from my Random One-Shots story in here as well, 'cos I had plans to use it anyway, I just wanted to get the idea down.**

* * *

Annabeth had helped him, approving of Ava more than Bethany, but there was little she could do for Max's nerves. He had been jumpy and nervous all morning with shadows under his eyes and his hair more tousled than usual.

"What's the matter?"

"Nothing." He mumbled.

"Liar." Annabeth set the knife down from making sandwiches and held her son's face in her hands. He was tall, like his father, and catching her up quickly. Tobias was already two inches taller than her and he could still grow. Percy was taller than Tobias by three inches. "What's wrong?" Annabeth persisted. "There's date nerves and-"

"It's not a date."

"It's just you two."

"Mom…" Annabeth smiled teasingly. "Mom, Ava's a good _friend_. I-I…"

"Don't want to lose her?" Annabeth suggested, smirking. Max glowered, heat rising in his cheeks. "Aw, Max!" She laughed and hugged him. "Good job your dad's not here. He'd be teasing you rotten."

"Oh gods…" Annabeth held him at arm's length.

"Did you have nightmares again?" Max hesitated. "The usual?" She asked softly. He nodded, looking dejected and miserable. "They won't go away instantly, Max, but you can fight them now and attempt to stop them coming true."

"But-" His voice caught. "Alvie…"

"The car?" He nodded again, chewing his lip. "Alvie's fine. Well, a bit cuckoo, but fine."

"How come he gets the psychic powers? That's _so_ not fair."

"Alvie's just talented." Annabeth turned back to making sandwiches. By using the knife, she was putting Max to the test. She knew he still had temptations to, ah, _decorate_ his wrists again, but he had resisted for nearly four months now and he was doing well. "So, this date later…"

"It's not a date!"

"But you like her." They both looked round. Alvie was standing in the doorway, still in his pyjamas- Pokémon pyjama trousers with little Pikachus dotted all over and one of Max's T-shirts. Alvie was a bit of a titch compared to his older brothers and the T-shirt nearly reached his knees, but he liked it anyway.

"You're not helping." Max muttered, sure he was red in the face. Alvie studied him for a few seconds and they saw flecks of white in his eyes.

"The beach is nice." He said. "She'll like that." Max stared at his baby brother. He was still getting his head around this psychic thing, but it was still unfair.

"Right. Beach. Got it. Um, thanks." Alvie nodded and turned to his mother.

"Are you alright, sweetie?" Annabeth asked, setting the knife down again and moving forward to wrap Alvie in a morning hug. Alvie nodded, holding a piece of paper out to her. Annabeth hesitated before taking it. Relief flooded her expression and then she laughed. Max peered over her shoulder and saw Alvie had written a bunch of numbers instead of a prophecy, as Annabeth had probably first feared. "Ooh, Percy will be happy." Annabeth kissed Alvie's forehead. "Blue pancakes?" She asked.

"Please." Annabeth returned to organising the picnic, waving Max over for him to start making Alvie's breakfast.

"So, picnic on the beach. Then what?"

"Mom!"

"What?" Annabeth gave a sweet smile. "You should have heard Sally teasing Percy about him and me meeting up before we started dating." Her smile broadened at the memories. "Oh, his face was priceless."

"Don't let him hear you say that." Max told her. He imitated his father, saying, "This face was meant for Hollywood!" Annabeth laughed.

"Definitely a Seaweed Brain in the making." She ruffled Max's hair, as if he were five again. She glanced over her shoulder at Alvie, who was drawing patterns on the table surface with his fingers. "Alvie?" He didn't respond immediately. "Alvie!" He looked round. "Feeling brave?" Annabeth asked him. Alvie frowned slightly in confusion. "Want to get Sage up for me?" Alvie hesitated. "Max will make you more pancakes." Annabeth bribed. "Won't you, Max?" Max clearly did not have a choice in this, but he smiled at his brother.

"Yeah, sure."

"OK." Alvie got up and padded out.

* * *

By lunchtime, Max was set to go out, having helped his mother with the picnic after Alvie's pancakes- which turned out almost as good as Percy's. Max didn't know he could cook so well.

"You'll be fine." Annabeth assured, straightening his jacket. "Just stay out of trouble, no fighting, no arguing, don't steal her food and if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all." Max stared at her for a few seconds.

"Do you want fries with that?"

"Out!" Annabeth ordered, forcibly spinning him around and shooing him out. She passed him the picnic basket and waved him away. "Just like Percy…" Max heard her mutter as the door closed behind him.

He put his headphones in, not trusting the silence. He had seen the crash in his sleep last night, but the altered version where the paramedics turned up, looked at Alvie and shook their heads, packing up their gear and driving off.

His chest tightened as he saw Alvie's still form in that growing pool of blood.

_Stop it_. He forced himself to focus on something, anything, else. He chose the streets around him; the hubbub of Christmas shoppers, the blaring horns of traffic and the icy, whistling wind.

He had to be at the beach by half twelve to meet Ava. If he was late, she wouldn't hang around long. He had to get this right or he wouldn't get another chance. Ava meant it when she had said 'last chance' and Max didn't want to blow it.

He winced as he saw Alvie injured and unconscious again. Panic built in his chest and he turned his music up, his hands trembling.

"Not going to happen. He's OK." Max mumbled to himself. "Get to the beach, have the picnic, sort things out with Ava, walk her home, go home, have shower, go to bed." Max kept telling himself the shortened plan and it helped him focus. He reached the beach ten minutes early and he had calmed down a great deal, his panic subsiding into hope at what he could possibly accomplish with Ava today.

She was already here, Max noticed, her auburn hair blowing in the cold, sea breeze. She had her green duffel coat on, her hair noticeably attempted to be tucked into a matching hat. She was standing, hugging herself for warmth and staring out at the sea. There was only a dog walker on the beach, as far as Max could see, but that sat well with him. He didn't particularly like crowded beaches.

He stopped next to her, not looking at her, but out across the glittering expanse of the sea.

"You're early." She told him.

"Is that good?"

"Maybe. What food have you got, I'm starving." Max held the picnic bag out to her and she rummaged carefully through the contents. "Mmph, you've stepped up a bit."

"Are you cold?"

"I'm fine."

"Do you want my jacket?" She looked at him then.

"I'm fine, Max. Let's just get this over with." She couldn't make it more obvious that she didn't want to be here if she tried.

They found a quiet spot in a small cave at the base of the cliffs to the far east of the beach. Max set the picnic up, draping the spare blanket around her shoulders, having noticed she was shivering. He offered her sandwiches, but she pulled a face at the ham and cheese and helped herself to the honey sandwiches instead.

"Sorry." Max said. He spoke clearly and calmly, but the suddenness of it nearly made her drop her sandwich.

"You're sorry?" She looked at him, a defiant gleam in her molten lava eyes.

"Yeah." Max replied, holding her gaze. "I'm a jerk. I get that."

"Well, you can be, yeah." She sighed. "I guess I'm to blame for most of that though."

"I don't blame you." She stared at him, hopeful yet silently protesting that he was wrong. "You had no choice."

"Like you." She said so quietly, Max barely heard her. He didn't say anything, munching on a sandwich to try and settle his nerves. "I'm… I'm sorry too. I've been thinking… about what you said, about me kicking off… like, if I didn't care, why was I kicking off." He nodded, looking at her and waiting for her to continue. "I just… Bethany, she's so…"

"Annoying?"

"Not the word I'm looking for." She fell silent, picking the crusts off her sandwiches and throwing them at the seagulls. She sighed. "We could call it even and go back to hating each other."

"I don't hate you."

"I'm still mad at you."

"I've got a feeling you'll always be mad at me."

"Damn right." Max laughed and she glared at him, but he could tell she was trying not to smile.

"Alright then, let's go back to _hating_ each other. Smelly cow." He teased.

"Moron."

"Loser."

"Jerk face."

"Kinda deserved that one." Ava shivered as a cold wind whistled around the cave. She muttered a curse, pulling the blanket tighter about her shoulders. Max didn't know what made him do it, but he shifted closer and put his arm around her. "How about, instead of 'jerk face', we go with hot water bottle?"

"I would love one of those." She mumbled. Her shoulders were tense. Max couldn't tell if it was because of the cold or because he had his arm around her. "Great day for a picnic, huh?" She managed, shivering.

"We could go and get a coffee or something." Max suggested. "Or hot chocolate." He added quickly, seeing her grimace. Coffee was for mornings only, in her book.

"Hot chocolate sounds nice."

"And the little marshmallows." She nodded in agreement. Max set about packing up.

"Just because I'm being nice now doesn't mean I'm not mad at you."

* * *

**OK, maybe the bit from the one-shot will be in the next chapter or the one after that. I'm going to have to do this in pieces as it's half nine at night here and if I don't go to bed now, Mum will try and get me up before SIX tomorrow. I. Am. Not. A. Morning. Person. **


	35. Woo! :D

**Two questions- one from Erik the Viking and vivi-rose **

**Erik the Viking- Question for Alvie: If you could change the past where you never met Crystal, and never became psychic, would you? **

**Alvie: Um... well... uh... Crystal: -_- Alvie: Nope. Wouldn't dare :) Crystal: Good. You're learning *smug* Alvie: *whispers* she's scary... **

**And from vivi-rose- To Alokia, do you like Coldplay? What are your top 5 books? (I know it's hard) **

**Alokia: Um... no, I don't really like Coldplay. I mean, they're OK and everything, but I'm not a huge fan... and top five books? Top FIVE? Why FIVE? That's not fair! (Wait, does a series count as 1 book, like Harry Potter? :) )**

* * *

Ava had left Max for a few minutes for a bathroom break and came back to see him sat with Bethany and her gaggle of friends. Max was holding onto his hot chocolate as if his life depended on it and he was pale, his eyes hosting a guarded look. Ava stormed forward, regaining her calm on the way. She slipped her hand into the crook of Max's elbow and smiled sweetly at him. He looked relieved to see her and it was then that she noticed Bethany's friends were holding carrier bags of alcohol.

Her calm melted into rage and she slapped Bethany. She would have slapped all the friends as well, but Max pulled her back, his arm going around her waist.

"Stop it." He mumbled in her ear, but she didn't pay attention, fighting against him.

"You _idiot_. Drinking when _pregnant_ and then trying to get him drunk again!"

"I wasn't drinking. I haven't and I won't. I just supervise them, hun." Bethany glared at her. "What's wrong with getting Max drunk anyway? He's fun."

"I'll tell you what's wrong with getting him drunk again." Ava broke free of Max's hold and squared up to Bethany. "That drink could have _killed him_. He had an _operation_ _to save him_ and one drink could set him back." Max was pulling her back again, his hands warm and gentle on her arms. "If you do _anything_ to ruin what he's done…" Ava glared at Bethany, promising pain. Bethany had enough brain cells to know not to answer.

"Come on, Ava." Max drained the last of his hot chocolate, his arm around her shoulders. "We'll go home." He steered her out and hailed a taxi. She was still itching to go back inside and smack Bethany and her friends into the ground, but Max didn't want a full-out cat fight on his hands.

It took Max most of the ride home to get Ava to calm down a fraction. "Ava, I wouldn't have drunk that."

"You said the other day you were tempted!"

"Tempted, yeah. Not stupid." She scoffed, folding her arms and glaring out of the window. "I'm not going down that road again." Max said firmly. Ava didn't respond or look round. "Promise." Max added quietly.

Ava glanced at him in his reflection in the car window. Some of his colour had come back and he didn't seem so on edge, but he kept fidgeting and looking at her, trying to be discreet as if she wouldn't notice.

Sighing, she let herself relax and look at him.

"Promise?" He nodded, holding her gaze. Ava smiled at him. "Good."

They got back to Max's home in ten minutes.

"Well, they're out." Max voiced, noticing the lack of his father's car in the drive. He looked at her. "Want to make cakes?"

"And hot chocolate. You owe me hot chocolate."

"You owe yourself." Max muttered, paying the taxi driver and climbing out. He held his hand out to her. His hand was warm, calloused from years of training, but comforting. To Ava, it felt like her hand fit nicely in his.

Max made her a hot chocolate, with the little marshmallows. She sat at the table in the kitchen while he rummaged around for the stuff they needed to make cakes and cookies. Ava also wrote down a recipe for cakes she remembered from when she used to make cakes with her mother. It bought good memories, yet sadness as well.

Ava found out she had to supervise Max as he wasn't trusted alone in the kitchen- he was like his aunt, hosting the potential to make something explode in attempts to cook. She had to read the recipe to him several times, watching as he grew frustrated with his dyslexia.

"Oh, look, you've made a mess."

"But that's your side of the kitchen."

"You crossed the line."

"No I didn't."

"You did."

"Liar."

"Liar." Max wiped flour on her shirt and she dabbed cake mix on his face. "I win." She teased. Max held her face in his flour-coated hands, wiping it over her cheeks and nose and some on her forehead. "I hate you sometimes."

"I win."

"Ugh…" She waved her hands in the air and turned away, scooping cake mix into buttered tins. Max turned the radio on and they were met with Drake and Rihanna's Take Care.

_I know you've been hurt… by someone else… I can tell by the way… you carry yourself… If you let me… here's what I'll do… I'll take care of you… _

Ava slid the tins into the oven and turned around to start gathering their cooking equipment to put in the dishwasher. Max was dropping blobs of cookie mix onto the lined tray, his face scrunched up in concentration. He did look kind of cute…

_Whoa, where did that come from?_ Ava shook her head, grabbing a dishcloth from the sink and wiping down her side of the counter. With all the flour everywhere, Max had drawn a line in the middle and created their 'sides'.

"Ha! In your face, cookie mix!"

"You're an idiot."

"It runs in the family." Max replied instantly, dumping his mixing bowl on the side and picking up his tray of cookie splodges. He hooked his foot in the handle of the oven and opened it, sliding the tray in and kicking the door shut. "Cookie mix?" He offered, reaching for the bowl. Ava smiled at him and they cleaned up the remains of the cookie mix together. "How long have they got to be in the oven?"

"There are timers, Max. I've set them."

"Oh. Good."

"Your side still needs cleaning." Max looked round, his finger in his mouth. Somehow, he had smeared cookie mix on his cheek. Ava reached out without thinking and brushed it away with her thumb. Her touch startled him and he dropped the bowl. It shattered on the floor and he cursed.

Heat rose in her cheeks and she stepped back, busying herself with getting the dustpan and brush from under the sink. Max took them from her, his expression blank, but his cheeks tinged pink. He swept up the shards and dumped them in the bin, not looking at her.

Ava watched him clean his side up and fill the dishwasher, chewing her lip and trying to stop her heart from racing. She should have known better than to wipe away the cookie mix herself. He was jumpy whenever somebody touched him and he had taken to covering his arms again. Ava wasn't sure why, but she didn't want to ask him in case it triggered a panic attack.

"Max…" She started. He looked at her, his expression carefully blank, but his eyes gleaming with… curiosity? What was that? "I… I didn't mean to… to make… make you jump, I just…" She hesitated, wringing her hands and casting her eyes at the floor, before nervously looking back up at him. "You had cookie mix on your face." She said quietly. He blinked, before a small smile broke out.

"And you've got flour on yours." He teased. Ava glowered at him, but she was smiling too.

"I'm going to go and clean up. Keep an eye on those." She gestured at the oven, turning on her heel and leaving him.

Max looked around nervously, rubbing his hands together and cracking his knuckles.

_Give me love like her… 'cos lately I've been waking up alone… pain splattered teardrops on my shirt… told you I let them go… _

Ava could hear the song through the quiet house from the kitchen. She loved that song, but the some of the lyrics reminded her of Max. She made a mental note to check his wrists after cleaning herself up a bit.

_You know I'll fight my corner… And that tonight, I'll call ya… After my blood is drowning in alcohol… No I just wanna hold ya… Give a little time to me or burn this out… We'll play hide and seek, to turn this around… All I want is the taste that your lips allow… My, my, my, my, oh give me love… _

Ava pulled herself from her the lyrics and ran the water over the face cloth. There was more flour on her face than she had first thought, but it was patchy and made it seem she was only sickly pale in places.

Movement at the edge of the mirror had her tensing and whirling round.

It was only Max, standing in the doorway. He looked a little lost, staring at her blankly with wide eyes and his hands clenched in fists at his sides.

"Are you OK?" Ava asked, setting the face cloth down and stepping forward. He didn't move or respond, continuing to stare at her. "Max?" She was only a foot from him now, studying his face and trying to determine what he was thinking.

He swallowed nervously before holding his hands out to her. Ava wanted to check his wrists, but thought better of it, biting her lip and resting her shaking hands in his. He pulled her into a hug, resting his head on her shoulder. Ava was a bit stunned at first, before returning his hug, twisting her fingers in his T-shirt.

She pulled back slightly and looked him in the eye. He watched her for a few seconds, various thoughts and emotions exploding and disappearing in his eyes like fireworks.

They leaned in at the same time and she felt his lips graze hers…

"Guys, we're home!" They jumped apart, as if an electric wire had struck them. "Max?" Annabeth called. "Ava?" Ava hurriedly washed the rest of her face, before darting downstairs. "What are you doing?"

"We were making cakes and cookies, but Max made a mess and put flour on my face."

"Where's Max?"

"Um, sorting himself out."

"Is he OK?"

_No, he's damn fine, but you interrupted._

"Yeah, he's OK."

* * *

For his last chance, he did pretty well. Ava was curled up in her bed, unable to sleep. Max had walked her home after his parents got back, carrying the tub with her simply decorated cake in. She kind of hoped for him to try and kiss her again, but he didn't.

Obviously she was still mad at him. She would always be mad at him. In a few weeks, there would be a living reminder as to why she was mad at him. She may not see the baby often, seeing as she didn't see Tobias and Sophia that frequently, but it was the reason as to why she was so angry and jealous.

_I'm not jealous. _

_You are. Her mind shot back. You were jealous even before that text from Bethany. You hated other girls trying to flirt with him while you were out. _

_He didn't flirt back! _

_Are you sure? _

_Well, yeah… I think so. Brain, shut up. I'm trying to go to sleep. _

_No. Let's stay awake all night thinking about life… _

_No. _

Ava rolled onto her side and stared across the room. Alokia had fallen asleep with a book in her hands again and Elsie was sound asleep, her back to Ava. She glanced at the clock and saw it was past midnight.

Snatching up her phone, Ava decided to text Max.

_Are you awake? Xxx _

_Yeah. I take it you are as well? Xxx _

_No, I can sleep text xxx _

_You're that good? Xxx _

_Yup xxx _

_Are you OK? Xxx _

_Yeah, why? Xxx _

_You're texting me at nearly one in the morning. What's wrong? Xxx _

_Just thinking about earlier… xxx _

Max studied that text for a few seconds. Well, she was honest about it; he'd give her credit for that. And, admittedly, he was thinking about earlier too, but he couldn't bring himself to say what was on his mind, so he went with something almost worthy of his older brother:

_Yeah, me too. Those cakes were nice xxx _

_Oh, you're impossible. _

_I know. I saved you some cookies xxx _

_Ok that's better xxx _

_Woo! Xxx _

_You're even idiotic over texts xxx _

_You should read the conversations me and Tobias have then. Something about leprechauns and pink, feathery trees… _

_What? O.o _

_Ask him. He started it xxx _

_Ok… _

His phone fell silent and he debated with himself to send the text he had typed out: _Would you possibly consider going to McDonalds with me tomorrow?_ He was trying to ask her out on a date, but his nerves were betraying him, making him erase the message. She seemed to save him from asking the awkward question.

_Do you want to meet up? Xxx _

_When? Xxx _

_Now xxx _

_Now? Xxx _

_Yup. Get up, get dressed, get out. And leave a note- you know what your mom's like xxx _

_And meet you where? Xxx _

_Shop xxx _

_OK xxx _

Max jumped up, pulling jeans and a T-shirt from the dresser. He grabbed his jacket from the hook on the door, pulled his trainers out from under his bed and climbed out the window, leaving a note on his bed for his mother in case she checked on him for some random reason in the middle of the night. He wouldn't be long- he doubted she would even see the message.

It didn't take him long to get to the local mini-mart. Ava turned up ten minutes later, bundled up against the cold. She smiled sheepishly at him, her arms folded to preserve heat.

"Hiya." Max always thought that was a good start. A simple greeting.

"Hi."

"So… why did you get me up and out before one in the morning, may I ask?" She pursed her lips.

"I wanted to talk to you."

"You could have texted me and be in the warm." He pointed out. She glared at him. "Not that seeing you isn't bad."

"Nice save."

"What'd you want to talk about?" Max asked, his hands fidgeting nervously. Ava dropped her gaze, studying her shoes for a few seconds. She took a deep breath and looked back up at him, as eerily calm as anything.

"Earlier. Not the cakes."

"Or the cookies." Max added quietly. She nodded, pressing her lips together with a thoughtful gleam in her lava eyes.

She looked ready to speak further, but she hesitated. Max didn't know what to do either. He wanted to try and kiss her again, this time without interruptions, hopefully, but something stopped him. He had no idea what spurred him on earlier, but it wasn't here now. Instead, he was a bundle of nerves, trying to get his head together to talk to this girl.

Ava examined Max carefully, noticing his hands were furling and unfurling into and from fists. He kept drumming his fingers on the back of his hand, constantly switching hands and then he cracked his knuckles, a nervous habit she was familiar with.

"Max…" She started, but her words faltered. Max stared at her with those intense silvery-grey eyes that seemed almost pitch black in the night darkness. "I, um… sorry about… about kicking off earlier with Bethany and that lot." He smiled, which confused Ava.

"Kick off all you want where she's concerned. She keeps trying to get me to drink, but…" He shook his head. "Don't want to." She recalled his relief at her return, the way he had held his mug of hot chocolate.

He held his hand out to her. "Want to go for a walk?" He asked.

"OK." She replied quietly, feeling slightly, yet pathetically giddy as she took his hand.

They didn't walk far, just around the block a few times, cutting through alleys and darting across streets. Other than the odd car and drunken person, they didn't really see anybody.

Max didn't let go of her hand either, which Ava couldn't stop smiling like an idiot about. His nervous energy was mostly gone, having been transferred into walking energy. Max didn't talk much and Ava found herself talking more than usual, her nervous habit.

"Phoenix and Charlie really liked the cakes, but Louisa could have killed me for getting Charlie hyper like that. He was bouncing off the walls, the sofa, anything really and he insisted he was a turtle at one point, which was weird. He chased Phoenix around the apartment before Leo distracted him and Phoenix kept calling Charlie 'the cray-cray boy'. Um, Elsie found it all very funny and had a laser pointer. Charlie tried to catch that and Alokia was recording it. Charlie wasn't happy when the red dot was just that little bit too far out of his reach." Max smiled, imagining his young cousin jumping up and trying to catch a red dot that never stayed still.

"They're mean."

"It was so funny. You should have seen it. Charlie crashed about six and collapsed on the sofa, out like a light. He was so cute!" Ava noticed that Max had changed direction and that she was following him. "Where are we going?"

"I'm getting you home. Lou will go nuts if she finds you're missing."

"Oh…" Ava's shoulders sagged and she suddenly didn't feel like talking, as if all her words had been spent. Max looked at her curiously. "Nothing." She mumbled, glad that the dark hid her blush.

They were minutes from the Valdez residence when Max tugged sharply on her hand, drawing her to him. Before Ava knew what was going on, he was kissing her.

It was a shy, curious kiss, gentle yet loving. Max feared she would pull away and not talk to him ever again, but once she got over the initial surprise, she kissed him back. Max's heart soared and he tightened his arms around her in a grateful hug. Her arms went around his neck and he felt her relax, smiling against his lips.

They parted for air. Max laughed, surprising her. He tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear, smiling like the goofball he was.

"I've waited ages to do that." He told her, his fingertips gently brushing her bottom lip.

"You could do it again if you want." Ava mumbled, still mildly dazed. Max cracked up laughing.

"Oh, you're good." He grinned, kissing her again.

_In your face, Bethany_, Ava thought smugly, _he's mine_.

* * *

**Ta-da! :D **


End file.
